finding out the result of an INSERT

Hi, this might be a stupid question but it's got me stumped today My setup: php, mysql, apache etc I'm inserting a record into a table that's got a primary key which is auto incrementing .. +---------------+---------------+------+-----+---------+----------------+ | Field | Type | Null | Key | Default | Extra | +---------------+---------------+------+-----+---------+----------------+ | message_id | int(11) | | PRI | NULL | auto_increment | | message_text | mediumtext | YES | | NULL | | | topic_id | int(11) | YES | | NULL | | | user_id | int(11) | YES | | NULL | | | message_title | varchar(50) | YES | | NULL | | | message_time | timestamp(14) | YES | | NULL | | | parent_id | int(11) | YES | | NULL | | | thread_id | int(11) | YES | | NULL | | +---------------+---------------+------+-----+---------+----------------+ by doing $sql = "INSERT INTO messagetable(user_id, message_title, message_text,topic_id, thread_id, parent_id) VALUES ('$userid','$subject','$comment','$topic_id','$thread_id','$parent_id')"; mysql_query($sql); which works fine BUT is there any way of finding out the message_id of the record I just inserted ? with thanks Christian Christian Cable ICT Assistant Careers Service; Lancaster University Tel: (01524) 594072 Fax: (01524) 592072 http://www.lancs.ac.uk/staff/cable/