How to generate a dynamic sequence table in MySQL? - mysql

Question

I'm trying to generate a sequence table in MySQL, so that I can get unique ids from last_insert_id.
The problem is that I need multiple sequences dynamically.
At the first, I created a table:
CREATE TABLE `sequence` (
`label` char(30) CHARACTER SET latin1 NOT NULL,
`id` mediumint(9) NOT NULL DEFAULT '0',
PRIMARY KEY (`label`)
) ENGINE=MyISAM DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8
And then tried to get the number, using example from http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/information-functions.html#function_last-insert-id
UPDATE sequence SET id = LAST_INSERT_ID(id + 1) WHERE label = 'test';
SELECT LAST_INSERT_ID();
After a while I realized that I also need to generate rows for new labels safely.
So I changed this schema into:
CREATE TABLE `sequence` (
`label` char(30) CHARACTER SET latin1 NOT NULL,
`id` mediumint(9) NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
PRIMARY KEY (`label`,`id`)
) ENGINE=MyISAM DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8
And I simply gave up using WHERE clause to update its id.
INSERT INTO sequence (label) values ( ? )
SELECT LAST_INSERT_ID()
Is this a proper way? I want to know if there is a better solution.

Answer 1

The MyISAM engine will do it for you -
Table definition:
CREATE TABLE `sequence` (
`label` char(30) CHARACTER SET latin1 NOT NULL,
`id` mediumint(9) NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
PRIMARY KEY (`label`,`id`)
) ENGINE=MyISAM DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8;
Populate table:
INSERT INTO sequence VALUES ('a', NULL); -- add some 'a' labels
INSERT INTO sequence VALUES ('a', NULL);
INSERT INTO sequence VALUES ('a', NULL);
INSERT INTO sequence VALUES ('b', NULL); -- add another labels 'b'
INSERT INTO sequence VALUES ('b', NULL);
INSERT INTO sequence VALUES ('a', NULL); -- add some 'a' labels
INSERT INTO sequence VALUES ('a', NULL);
Show result:
SELECT * FROM sequence;
+-------+----+
| label | id |
+-------+----+
| a | 1 |
| a | 2 |
| a | 3 |
| a | 4 |
| a | 5 |
| a | 6 |
| b | 1 |
| b | 2 |
+-------+----+