Primary key question with PHPmysql database

Question

I know that updating the primary key is taboo, but I have a a newsletter subscription form set up that works perfectly, but I can't figure out how to create the primary key. I tried using the subscriber email address (because its unique, but in trying to add an update function I realize that the email address may need to be updated.

My question is how do I get a primary key that will work when I'm relying on a form variable to create the record and therefore have no control over assigning one?

Is there a way to have one automatically assigned when a subscriber hits the submit button?

bregent · Accepted Answer

That's why it's always a good idea to use surrogate keys. You can simply have the database generate a unique id. In MySQL, I think this is a column with the auto_increment attribute. If you need to then obtain that id after insert, php has functions for this (mysql_insert_id() I believe).

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