Insert a Unique Reference Number

Yii 1.1 General Discussion
1

I already have an auto-inc ID field but I also need a field to store a unique reference number for each record.

At the moment I have a function which generates a random 8 digit number - this works fine but obviously there is still a possibilty of a duplicate number being created.

I could always check the latest reference number and add 1 to it, but is there any other way?

2

uniqid is useful, especially using the ‘prefix’. :)

3

The problem is uniqid generates a 13 digit number - I prefer to use 8 digits or less as it’s a customer reference number - when the customer calls they don’t have to read out 13 numbers.

4

+1 ;)

That would be the simple and safe solution.

5

Is there a strong reason not to use autoincrement value?