Auto-increment questions...

I am working on a database application for Unix user accounts. I want to be able to have a system that will provide me the next available numeric user ID. I have created a 2 column index table that simply includes UID and user name. This field is autoincrement and the primary key for the table. Currently this field only contains a very small sample of users. Basically, I have numeric IDs 3000, 3001, 3008, and 3028. My problem is that I am not sure how to query this table to get the next available numeric ID which is 3002. If I do an insert into this table without specifying a value for the auto_increment column it comes up with 3029. Is there a way to query and/or insert such that it comes up with the next unused numeric value? Scott Nipp Phone: (214) 858-1289 E-mail: sn4265@sbc.com Web: http:\\ldsa.sbcld.sbc.com