Generating a range of numbers in MySQL

Question

How do I generate a range of consecutive numbers (one per line) from a MySQL query so that I can insert them into a table?

For example:

nr
1
2
3
4
5
         


        

Answer 1

If you need the records in a table and you want to avoid concurrency issues, here's how to do it.

First you create a table in which to store your records

CREATE TABLE `incr` (
  `Id` int(11) NOT NULL auto_increment,
  PRIMARY KEY  (`Id`)
) ENGINE=MyISAM  DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8;

Secondly create a stored procedure like this:

DELIMITER ;;
CREATE PROCEDURE dowhile()
BEGIN
  DECLARE v1 INT DEFAULT 5;
  WHILE v1 > 0 DO
    INSERT incr VALUES (NULL);
    SET v1 = v1 - 1;
  END WHILE;
END;;
DELIMITER ;

Lastly call the SP:

CALL dowhile();
SELECT * FROM incr;

Result

Id
1
2
3
4
5