I have a column named 'order' in a table. The data type is "INT". I want to be able to insert a number. The number must be 1 more than the highest number in the column.

I can't do an auto_increment because that's already being used on another column (the primary key).

So I need a way to find out what the highest number is and add 1 to that number and just assign it to a variable, NOT modify the value in mysql.

Hope you can understand that. Thanks.

"SELECT MAX(column) FROM table"

then increment it in php

OK, thanks a lot, I will go try that now.

If you get lots of traffic, would it be possible to get a collision between two queries? Ie if one query starts and finds the column max, then another does the same, they both get the same value, both increment it to the same value, and then both write entries in the database with the same number?

its actually part of an admin section thingy i am working on for a website. i think there will only be 3 admins and i dont think they will all be working on the same thing at the same time.

so, i dont see that as a problem.