getting last record from DB

I have a field on my page, that i want to be pre filled in.
I want the field to be prefilled in withthe last "PASC ID" +1 thats in my db

I have this code:

<span style="font-size:small;font:sans serif;">PASC Ref #:</span>
<input type="text" name="pascref" size="20" maxlenght="20" value="<?php
//not sure what to put here
I know i want to query my DB, but i dont know how to get the last entry in PASC_ID table in my DB, then ADD 1 to it, so right now the PASC_ID are like "PASC 101", so when they go to the page, i wanted it to go into the db, and get the last value, and in the value of that text field it says "PASC 102"

?>" />

select max(PASC_ID) + 1 from table_name

Will that work, even if the table has words + numbers to it?
SO right now its "PASC 101" in that table, so if i do the above code it will say "PASC 102"?

instead of asking if it should work, didn't you try it? :/ the MySQL function max() returns the highest value found for the given field. if you add one to it, then it will add one to the returned value.

Ok i put this in

PHP Code:

---

    <input type="text" name="pascref" size="20" maxlenght="20" value="
<?php  
  $query1 = "SELECT max(pasc_id) + 1 FROM dss_returns"; 
  $result1 = @mysql_query ($query1);  
  echo $result1; 
?>
    " />

---

but i am getting this in my box.. "Resource id #4"
I dont know why its getting that

that's because you have to return a result from your query if you want to get the output given by MySQL. you queried the database, but you didn't fetch anything from that result. you can use mysql_fetch_array() or mysql_fetch_assoc() to do that.

an example:

PHP Code:

---

<?php
  $query = 'SELECT max(pasc_id)+1 FROM dss_returns';
  $result = mysql_query($query);
  $assoc = mysql_fetch_assoc($result);
  echo '<pre>';
  print_r($assoc);
  echo '</pre>';
?>

---

if you're only returning one value and don't need to further use that query, you could use this shortcut:

PHP Code:

---

<?php
  @extract(mysql_fetch_assoc(mysql_query("SELECT (max(pasc_id)+1) as result FROM dss_returns")));
  echo $result;
?>

---

You shouldn't store "PASC 101" in a text field as your ID, you should store 101 in a numeric field and then prepend the "PASC " string in your code. Storing it in the database is simply redundant.