unique username generation

[chrisuk]

As part of a system I have developed, usernames are generated based on the first letter of the users forename, plus all of their surname, eg. JBloggs - this is standard at the company.

 

What I am wanting to to is if a username already exists (which is unlikely as it is a small company - but possible nonetheless) is to add a number to the end.

 

I have it working so that if JBloggs already exists and I was to try to add another Joe Bloggs, the username would be JBloggs1.

 

However - that's easy.

 

What I am not too sure about is how I can check to see what the number currently is, so that in the extremely unlikely event that a third username would be the same, it would be JBloggs2 - and so on.

 

How can I go about this?

 

Thanks

[suzzane2020]

i gues u cud avoid te confusion this way:

 

 

y not add the id of the user table with each of the usrnames

 

ie

jbloggs_1

jbloggs_2

 

this way the username wud always be unique

[chrisuk]

that's a great idea actually, and will save any lengthy logic....

 

Think I will just do that, thanks!

 

purely as a matter if interest though...it would still be nice to know how to do my original idea.

 

thanks

[taith]

not tested... but i think it'd work...

<?
$username='JBloggs';
$query=mysql_query("SELECT * FROM `users` WHERE `login`='$username%'");
$row=mysql_fetch_assoc($query);
if(empty($row)){
#add the user
}else{
$lastnum=0;
while($row=mysql_fetch_assoc($query)){
  if(is_numeric($row[login]{strlen($row[login])-1})&&$row[login]{strlen($row[login])-1}>$lastnum) $lastnum=$row[login]{strlen($row[login])-1};
}
$lastnum++;
echo $username.$lastnum;
}
?>