Is there a way to get last inserted id of a NON - auto incremented column in MySQL?

Question

I know how LAST_INSERT_ID() works for auto incremented columns, but I cannot find a way to get the last id I inserted for a non auto incremented column.

Is there a

Answer 1

I assume that you need the ID to find your just inserted row, rather to find the last inserted row. In a web application, you can never be sure that the last inserted row is the one you have just created.

You could use a GUID as id in this case. A GUID is usually stored as a string of length 36 or as a 16byte blob. The GUID can be created before inserting the row, and then can be stored while inserting the row.

Since the id is not auto incremented as you stated, you have to generate it anyway before inserting the row. The safest way to do this is to create a GUID which should be unique enough. Otherwise you would have to determine the last unused ID, what can be tricky and risky.