Unique, unpredictable, 12 digit, integer id

Question

How would I go about generating this... I want to keep my primary key sequential and have a 12 digit unique pin generated for each new object added to the database.

Answer 1

Maybe you can use UUID_SHORT(). Not 12 digits long, but still could be a viable option:

mysql> select uuid_short();
+-------------------+
| uuid_short()      |
+-------------------+
| 22048742962102272 |
+-------------------+

So:

INSERT INTO `table` (`id`, `text`) VALUES (UUID_SHORT(), 'hello world!');

Note: If you really want to have exactly 12 digits, then don't even try to substring the result, if would not ensure the uniqueness of the identifier and may cause collisions.