Question

hey i am creating an application for invoicing(computer generated bill).
i have a table sales_log where ref no. column is set to auto_increment.i didnt assign the start value. i mean if the ref no. of 1st bill is 101 then i should automatically get 102..103…etc for the rest…i just dont know how to alter the table constraint and set a starting value for that column.
here is the description of my table

mysql> desc sales_log;
+----------+---------+------+-----+---------+----------------+
| Field    | Type    | Null | Key | Default | Extra          |
+----------+---------+------+-----+---------+----------------+
| date     | date    | YES  |     | NULL    |                |
| item_id  | int(11) | YES  | MUL | NULL    |                |
| C_Id     | int(11) | YES  | MUL | NULL    |                |
| Quantity | double  | YES  |     | NULL    |                |
| Ref      | int(11) | NO   | PRI | NULL    | auto_increment |
| price    | double  | YES  |     | NULL    |                |
+----------+---------+------+-----+---------+----------------+

Answer 1

See http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.5/en/example-auto-increment.html

To start with an AUTO_INCREMENT value
other than 1, you can set that value
with CREATE TABLE or ALTER TABLE, like
this:

ALTER TABLE sales_log AUTO_INCREMENT = 101;