How do I get the last inserted ID of a MySQL table in PHP?

Question

I have a table into which new data is frequently inserted. I need to get the very last ID of the table. How can I do this?

Is it similar to SELECT MAX(id) FROM

Answer 1

there is a function to know what was the last id inserted in the current connection

mysql_query('INSERT INTO FOO(a) VALUES(\'b\')');
$id = mysql_insert_id();

plus using max is a bad idea because it could lead to problems if your code is used at same time in two different sessions.

That function is called mysql_insert_id