MySQL - how to use VARCHAR as AUTO INCREMENT Primary Key - mysql

Question

I am using a VARCHAR as my primary key. I want to auto increment it (base 62, lower/upper case, numbers), However, the below code fails (for obvious reasons):
CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `campaign` (
`account_id` BIGINT(20) NOT NULL,
`type` SMALLINT(5) NOT NULL,
`id` VARCHAR(16) NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT PRIMARY KEY
) ENGINE=MyISAM DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8 COLLATE=utf8_unicode_ci;
however, this works:
CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `campaign` (
`account_id` BIGINT(20) NOT NULL,
`type` SMALLINT(5) NOT NULL,
`id` VARCHAR(16) NOT NULL PRIMARY KEY
) ENGINE=MyISAM DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8 COLLATE=utf8_unicode_ci;
What is the best way to keep track of incrementation of 'id' myself? (Since auto_increment doesn't work). Do i need to make another table that contains the current iteration of ID? Or is there a better way to do this?
EDIT: I want to clarify that I know that using INT is a auto_increment primary key is the logical way to go. This question is in response to some previous dialogue I saw. Thanks

Answer 1

you have to use an INT field
and translate it to whatever format you want at select time

Answer 2

example of a solution to your problem:
create a file with a unique number and then increment with a function.
the filename can be the prefix and the file binary content represent a number.
when you need a new id to the reg invoque the function
Example
String generateID(string A_PREFIX){
int id_value = parsetoInt(readFile(A_PREFIX).getLine())
int return_id_value = id_value++
return return_id_value
}
where "A_PREFIX-" is the file name wich you use to generate the id for the field.

Answer 3

Or just create a sequence and maintain the pk field using the sequence to generate the primary key value with nextval function. And if perf is an issue, use cache on sequence.
But as others have stated, this is sub-optimal, if your primary key contains a numbered sequence then it's better to use int and auto-increment.
I don't see a use case where pk has to auto-increment but be a varchar data type, it doesn't make sense.

Answer 4

Assuming that for reasons external to the database, you do need that varchar column, and it needs to autoIncrement, then how about creating a trigger that grabs the existing autoIncrement value and uses Convert() to convert that value into a VarChar, dropping the VarChar into the field of interest. As mentioned in a previous answer, you could concatenate the table-name with the new varChar value, if there is some advantage to that.