[SOLVED] echoing the greatest number

[ted_chou12]

If I have an mysql column called id, and it contains only intergers, how do I echo the greatest id number?
For example:
ID
1
2
3
4
5
Then I want to echo 5.
Ted

[matto]

There are 2 ways you could do this:

If the id field is an auto_increment you can use mysql_last_insert function or you can use the following in your sql statement

select max(id) as id from table...

[ted_chou12]

oh thanks, you are right, my id column is an auto_increment type, but how would I use the  mysql_last_insert function ?
Thanks
Ted

[matto]

[code]
<?php
$link = mysql_connect('localhost', 'mysql_user', 'mysql_password');
if (!$link) {
  die('Could not connect: ' . mysql_error());
}
mysql_select_db('mydb');

mysql_query("INSERT INTO mytable (product) values ('kossu')");
printf("Last inserted record has id %d\n", mysql_insert_id());
?>
[/code]

The mysql_insert_id() acts on the last performed query so if you are not doing an insert you are probably best to use something like the following:

[code]
<?php
$sql = "select max(id) as max_id from table";
$result = @mysql_query($sql) or die("<tt>problem with $sql</tt>");
if($result) {
  $last_id = @mysql_fetch_object($result);
  echo $last_id->max_id;
}
?>
[/code]

[trq]

[quote]how would I use the  mysql_last_insert function ?[/quote]

Read the [url=http://php.net/mysql_last_insert]manual[/url]!

[ted_chou12]

thorpe, if you checked that link it says this:
Sorry, but the function mysql_last_insert is not in the online manual. Perhaps you misspelled it, or it is a relatively new function that hasn't made it into the online documentation yet. The following are the 20 functions which seem to be closest in spelling to mysql_last_insert (really good matches are in bold). Perhaps you were looking for one of these:

mysql_insert_id
mysql_list_dbs
mysql_list_fields
mysqli_insert_id
mysqli_stmt_init
mysqli_stmt_reset
sdo_list_insert
sqlite_last_insert_rowid
msql_list_dbs
msql_list_fields
mysql_change_user
mysql_data_seek
mysql_list_processes
mysql_list_tables
mysql_stat
mysqli_stmt_bind_result
mysqli_stmt_close
mysqli_stmt_error
pdo_lastinsertid
sqlite_last_error

of which I already knew before I asked the question.
Thanks matto, by the way.
Ted