MySQL; Is it possible to have letters in an auto increment field??

I am stuck in an odd dilemma. I have a script that I am trying to modify for use in a CMS, unfortunately the CMS does not allow me to use a field name as a number, which the script uses.

I have a field in the table named 'ID', which auto increments. I want to add 'ID_' at the beginning of each new entered ID field so I can work around the above problem. The script uses the ID # as a field name, so instead of name="15", it will be shown as name="id_15". I hope that makes sense.

Is this possible in MySQL? If not, i'm thinking there has to be a way in the PHP code when posting the info, that it adds it somehow?

 

You can't do that...

echo "ID_" . $field_id;

PHP:

 

echo "ID_" . $field_id;

Code (markup):

I have implemented this, unfortunately the form i'm using is now trying to modify the "ID_15" record, which of course does not exist.

Am I SOL, and have to redesign this program completely?

 

 if($bought > 0){
      array_push($ar, $iid . "=" . $bought);
      $query = "insert into purchaseHistory (iid, username, quantity, boughtDate) values (" . 
        $iid . ", '" . $myusername . "', " . $bought . ", NOW())";
      $rs = mysql_query($query) or die("Could not query2: " . mysql_error());
    }         
  }

Code (markup):

Here is some code - the $iid is the actual variable changed. Is there anyway in the code above to strip the "ID_" out of the $iid variable before posting, so the actual number is just inserted?

I know it seems odd, but it is the only workaround I can think of.

 

There are many ways to do that. Here's one:

$iid = substr($iid, 3);

PHP:

 

Thanks SoKickIt. I found this solution to work after googling it.

$iid = preg_replace('/[^0-9]/','',$iid);

Code (markup):

I know nothing about security w/PHP - is this just as good as the code you posted?

Thanks again for everything!

 

That would remove all non-numeric characters so that's exactly what you need