If it is already defined, and it isn't an auto increment type of field, you can set up a stored procedure, and a trigger. Set up the trigger on an insert and have it call the stored procedure. Then the stored procedure queries and updates the field. But, you would be better off defining it as a SERIAL field if you can. I do something similar in Postgres for a "last updated" field, except it is setting the field to the current date and time.<br>
<br><div class="gmail_quote">On Fri, Sep 3, 2010 at 2:50 PM, Kenneth Younger <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:kyounger@gmail.com">kyounger@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
Correct. If it's an auto_increment "counter", then just specify NULL as the value for that column and it will handle the auto increment.<div><div></div><div class="h5"><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Fri, Sep 3, 2010 at 2:47 PM, Eric Junker <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:eric@eric.nu" target="_blank">eric@eric.nu</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"><div>On 9/3/2010 2:34 PM, Todd Walton wrote:<br>
> I'm wondering, if I need to do an INSERT INTO a table, and the table<br>
> has a counter for a primary key, how do I handle setting the counter?<br>
> I don't know beforehand what it should be, and it could change second<br>
> by second. Would something like this work?:<br>
<br>
</div>Are you using MySQL? If so, it is probably an auto_increment primary<br>
key. You don't need to specify it when inserting as it will<br>
automatically increment and set the primary key when you insert.<br>
<br>
<a href="http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/example-auto-increment.html" target="_blank">http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/example-auto-increment.html</a><br>
<font color="#888888"><br>
Eric<br>
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