From: Ed Carp
Date: March 16 1999 11:32pm
Subject: Re: Can I get a field when inserting a row?
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>> The last insert id is stored *per thread*, not per table.  When
>> you select LAST_INSERT_ID(), it checks your thread for the most
>> recent ID inserted.  This is critical for correct performance of
>> programs, because more than one thread can be updating a table.
>> If LAST_INSERT_ID() returned the most recent ID for a table, you
>> could not be sure it belonged to the row you just inserted or a
>> row that someone else inserted.


You could also add a timestamp field to the table, then do "select ID from
table order by timestamp_field desc limit 1", then suck off the ID that way,
but again, that's not a guarantee, due to the concurrent threads issue.

Maybe if you explain exactly *why* you want to get the ID of the last row,
we might be able to assist you better?