indexing a new field in an existing table + auto incrementing from 1-500 records

[Giddy Rob]

Hey,

 

I am dealing with a table that has about 500 records. My problem is that I need to create an index and auto fill it from 1-500 (not manually). Once this is done I would like the table to autoincrement when a new record is added.

 

I have set up a field called 'item_number', which is the index field.

 

What php/mysql code do i need to run to fill the table from 1 (first record) to 500 (last record)? I'm hoping I can convert it to an index and autoincrement in phpmyadmin once this is done. At the moment if I try this I just get an error, duplicate field.

 

I did ask in the mysql forum but seems a bit of a ghost town

 

Cheers

 

Rob

[litebearer]

Psuedo code (I am sure there is a mysql command to to this easier, but, sledge hammer approach)

 

create new table (table 2) with desired fields

 

loop thru existing table (table 1) adding data from table 1 to table 2

 

drop table 1

 

copy table 2 to table 1

 

drop table 2

 

Make sense? (probably when my coffee kicks in it will be confusing to me too)