Hey guys I am working on a project and I am a little stuck, hopefully you can give me a hand.

Can MySQL reuse empty auto_increment values without reordering existing ones?
i.e. Values 1 2 3 and 4 exist, but 3 is deleted, have next record be inserted into row 3 and not row 5.

ok, let's start by saying that auto_increment values are not real primary keys, and so should be used with caution if using them as primary keys - which i think you are! I don't believe it is possible, because, while it is possible to reset the auto_increment, if using it for primary keys, an INSERT will cause an overwrite of anything with the same primary key - thus being rather useless!

I could be wrong though - can i ask why you need this to be done?? Check out the mySQL manual

When using AUTO_INCREMENT as an ID, if a row is deleted, that row ID will never be reused.

AUTO_INCREMENT values make for poor primary keys. There is always a better field and an AUTO_INCREMENTed ID is normally used for admin purposes rather than search queries.