In a MySQL database column that has been set to AUTO_INCREMENT, can I assume that the values will always be created sequentially?
For instance, if 10 rows are inserted and receive values 1,2,3,…10, and then 3 is deleted, can I assume the next row inserted will receive 11?
The reason I ask is that I’d like to sort values based on the order in which they were inserted into the table, and if I can sort based on the auto incremented primary key it will be a little easier.
From what I understand from the manual; yes. Each table has it’s own ‘next auto increment value’ that is incremented by the amount defined in auto_increment_increment (http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/replication-options-master.html#sysvar_auto_increment_increment) and that is never automatically reset, even though it can be manually reset. But as @miku said, if possible a timestamp would be preferable.