primary key is an auto increment field, how can i reuse #'s

[anthracite98]

basic example

users table:
userID | username
-----------------
1|joe
2|jeff
3|nancy
4|phil

userID is unique and autoincrement, so when i insert, i dont specify userID. if i delete jeff, then insert dave, dave gets inserted as userID:5. Is there anyway to automatically recover/reuse the deleted #'s??

I'm sure i could write some script to check all the numbers using a loop, and when one isn't found, to use that # in the insert statement, but i'm wondering if there is an easier way.

thanks,
-mo

 

[KarveR]

This comes up a fair bit. No you can't easily reuse ID's, and theres really no benefit in renumbering them at mysql level. ______________________________________________________________________
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