Re: Mysql Rows

----- Original Message ----- From: "benifactor" <snorris17@cox.net> To: "Robert Cummings" <robert@interjinn.com>; "tedd" <tedd@sperling.com> Cc: "PHP-General" <php-general@lists.php.net>; "Murray @ PlanetThoughtful" <lists@ulblog.org>; "Anthony Ettinger" <aettinger@sdsualumni.org> Sent: Saturday, March 04, 2006 2:29 PM Subject: Re: [PHP] Mysql Rows > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Robert Cummings" <robert@interjinn.com> > To: "tedd" <tedd@sperling.com> > Cc: "PHP-General" <php-general@lists.php.net>; "benifactor" > <snorris17@cox.net>; "Murray @ PlanetThoughtful" <lists@ulblog.org>; > "Anthony Ettinger" <aettinger@sdsualumni.org> > Sent: Saturday, March 04, 2006 9:41 AM > Subject: Re: [PHP] Mysql Rows > > > > On Sat, 2006-03-04 at 09:14, tedd wrote: > > > planetthoughtful wrote: > > > > > > >But, too often I've seen people new to database design not liking > > > >'gaps' because 'user1' will have a unique id of > > > >'1', while 'user2' > > > >will have a unique id of '6' because the records associated with > > > >unique ids '2' through '5' were deleted during testing, and > > > >so on. > > > >So, they feel that 'user2' should have a unique id of '2', > > > >ignoring > > > >the fact that that's not a unique id at all, if you had id '2' > > > >associated with another record at some point. > > > > > > And, Anthony wrote: > > > > > > >I remember the days where i'd > > > >clear a database after testing to keep the auto_increment inline, but > > > >eventually, you will get out of sync on that, so it's not a reliable > way of > > > >keeping a numerical sequence. > > > > > > Well... I'm one of those people who don't like gaps. I understand > > > that if the dB is relational, then you shouldn't be concerned about > > > gaps. Gaps are only perceived from a perspective of an artificial > > > ordering system -- who knows where the data actually is in memory or > > > on disk. > > > > > > However, when I'm working with a flat dB and want to step through the > > > records to do editing, I like the records to be in order based upon > > > an "id" (i.e., Record 1, Record 2, Record 3, and so on). I use an > > > auto_increment unique "id" for this. > > > > > > It's not a big problem for me to keep the records in order either. > > > Whenever I delete a record, I simply follow with: > > > > > > $dbQuery = "ALTER TABLE $dbtable "; > > > $dbQuery .= "DROP id, "; > > > $dbQuery .= "ADD id INT UNSIGNED NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,"; > > > $dbQuery .= "AUTO_INCREMENT = 1"; > > > $result = mysql_query($dbQuery) or die("2. Could not renumber dB > > > $dbQuery" . mysql_error()); > > > > *LOL* I knew those MySQL people shouldn't have made the ALTER TABLE > > syntax available to just anyone. Gun --> foot --> *BLAM*. I hope to God > > you never get your hands on a real database with millions of entries. > > > > Cheers, > > Rob. > > -- > > .------------------------------------------------------------. > > | InterJinn Application Framework - > > http://www.interjinn.com | > > :------------------------------------------------------------: > > | An application and templating framework for PHP. Boasting | > > | a powerful, scalable system for accessing system services | > > | such as forms, properties, sessions, and caches. InterJinn | > > | also provides an extremely flexible architecture for | > > | creating re-usable components quickly and easily. | > > `------------------------------------------------------------' > > > > my reasoning for needing the users number in a database is this... > > i am going to be doing a lottery type thing where i grab a random number > between 1 and the result of mysql_num_rows($result)... that is the reason > the gaps matter. the while loop didn't work for me so if anyone could help > me out on how to get this number i would aprreaciate it. thank you in > advance. here is what i tried.. while ($d = mysql_fetch_array($query)) { $i = 0; while ($d[username] != $user) { $i++ } } > > -- > PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) > To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php >