Initialize a value ONLY once

How and where can i declare a variable that is initialized to the value "1" only once ever and gets incremented always.

 

If you have a file that is included at the top of each page like a counter or database connection file you could stick it in there.

 

i tried, its not working.
i also tried static variable...no luck

 

This is a very cryptic question - in what context are you using it? What is its purpose?

 

i need to have a counter variable that will always increment and never repeat the same number.

 

Every time the page is loaded or connected to something else?

 

Yeah - where are you using this variable? When do you want it incremented?

 

Is it a counter?
If yes check out my tutorial.
counter script tutorials
http://www.phpeasystep.com/workshopview.php?id=7

 

Himambo, that is exactly what i need.
I've followed the tutorial, however, i keep getting the following error:

Access denied for user 'ODBC'@'localhost' (using password: NO)

 

by the way, it only gives me that error when trying to do the update, why?

 

Are username, password and host correct?

By the way, you should be aware that this script won't count actual visitors, just hits on page. If a visitor chooses to load a page several times, that would register as individual hits as well.

 

Yes username, password and host are correct.
Actually i didnt realize the refresh would also increment the counter.
I have a button called "Create" which causes a form to be filled out. Upon completion of the form, the user submits. I need to associate a unique number for every new 'creation'. does that make sense?

 

Absolutely

Do you submit the contents of the form to a mysql database? If so, you could just add an ID column with auto increment and save yourself the work of doing it in php.

 

Actually I got it to work. It was my bad, i had named the insert field wrong when trying to write to the database.

This works fine with what i'm trying to accomplish. The numbers may bot always be sequential, depending on refreshing the page, but as long as they unique, i'm good.

Thanks for all your help guys.

 

Congrats

 

To throw out another tip that wouldn't be too much extra code - you could check the ip address or referer page to check for dups or bots...