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#3031 (ok 3.3.3) Placement of AUTO_INCREMENT
AUTO_INCREMENT is displayed in the "Extra" section of a table's "Structure" tab. Why is it not in the "Default" column? AUTO_INCREMENT (like standard SQL IDENTITY) cannot be specified along with the DEFAULT keyword anyway (and should not). Both don't make any sense together anyway. AUTO_INCREMENT clearly is a default when nothing else is specified. It should be in the "Default" column, though this might be new for many. It clearly belongs there.
If you don't change this, UPPER_CASE auto-increment in the current implementation please.
Discussion
It's not in the default column because MySQL itself does not consider this as being an information for default (see http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.1/en/show-columns.html\).
There can be other information in Extra.
Now the Extra information is uppercased.
I think that displaying next AUTO_INCREMENT value in "Default" column would be handy.
To prevent mixing it up with real default values, phpMyAdmin can:
- Display it in italic, as it displays NULL default values, and
- Envelope it with angle brackets, f.e. <123>, and
- Supply it with tooltip "Next AUTO_INCREMENT value".
Then the MySQL developer's analysis is wrong. Why do you rely on that?
The MySQL Server does not allow concurrent declaration of DEFAULT and AUTO_INCREMENT. Try
create table aitest
(
id integer not null default 1 auto_increment primary key,
colcol integer
)
You either have to omit "default 1" OR auto_increment.
Why I rely on that? Because they are the developers of MySQL ...
Also, AUTO_INCREMENT is a behavior of the primary key, not a default value. I understand your point, but in CREATE TABLE syntax, AUTO_INCREMENT is not specified as a default value.