How to get next alpha-numeric ID based on existing value from MySQL

Question

First, I apologize if this has been asked before - indeed I\'m sure it has, but I can\'t find it/can\'t work out what to search for to find it.

I need to generate un

Answer 1

Easiest way to avoid duplicate values for the reference column is to add a unique constraint. So if multiple processes try to set to the same value, MySQL will reject the second attempt and throw an error.

ALTER TABLE table_name ADD UNIQUE KEY (`company_ref`);

If I were faced with your situation, I would handle the company reference id generation within the application layer, triggers can get messy if not setup correctly.