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Databases

Posted by Ramesh Giri
Ramesh Giri
99 Points

what is the answer i didnt understa the term id column is auto incrementing... please help me

what is id column is auto incrementing.

Jason Anello
Jason Anello
Courses Plus Student 94,610 Points

Can you link to the challenge this is from?

1 Answer

Steven Parker
Steven Parker
231,261 Points
Steven Parker
Steven Parker
231,261 Points

"Auto-incrementing" means that the column will automatically get a value that is one more than the last value given to that column when a new record is created. So when you create a new record, you do not need to (and probably would not want to) give this column a value.

For example, let's say we have a simple table with columns ID and NAME, and the ID column is auto-incrementing. It has 2 records and we want to add a new record for "Bob". So we do this:

INSERT INTO simple_table (NAME) VALUES ('Bob');

SELECT * FROM simple_table;

And what we get back is like this:

ID NAME

1 Dave

2 Jane

3 Bob

So even without giving a value to ID, it was set for us with a value higher than the other records have.