how to generate autoincrement number using frontend

[Guest purnendu]

CREATE TABLE `category` (                   
            `catid` varchar(15) NOT NULL default '0' auto_increment, 
            `catname` varchar(50) default NULL,       
            `status` varchar(50) default NULL,         
            PRIMARY KEY  (`catid`),                   
            KEY `catid1` (`catid`),                   
            KEY `cat` (`catname`)                     
          ) TYPE=InnoDB COMMENT='InnoDB free: 3072 kB' 

I have created one table category where column catid as varchar and autoincrement, but in want to insert  record
into database as "A00001", "A00002", "A00003" like that as a autogenerated with the help of coding
into frontend.

Plz help me
Purnendu

[.josh]

you can't auto_increment a varchar column type. it has to be an integer type. now what you CAN do is make a varchar and set it to be unique.  then select it, ordered by itself descending order limit 1, and use php to split the letters from the numbers to find out the next number, then build the next apha numeric string for insertion.