Insert sequential number in MySQL

Question

I added an empty column to a table and now I want to insert sequential numbers to its rows. Is it possible to do it using SQL?

Answer 1

Run the following queries to have incremented value in yourField column:

SELECT @i:=0;
UPDATE yourTable SET yourField = @i:=@i+1;

Answer 2

As I said in comments you can update every row with it's row number,

Here is a link to how to calculate rownum it mysql.

To rephrase:

update player,
       (select @rownum:=@rownum+1 ‘rank’, p.* 
        from player p,
        (SELECT @rownum:=0) r 
        order by score desc) player1
 set thatColumn= rank
 where player.id = player1.id

Answer 3

try this auto increment if you wanted to have incremental number in your table for each insert that you do

create table WithAutoInc(somID int AUTO_INCREMENT,somName_ char(100) ,primary key(somID ));

now to insert you can do this

 insert into WithAutoInc (somName_) values ('presley');

the result is