Date: 07/20/06 (MySQL Communtiy)    Keywords: php, mysql, sql

Hey guys, mild programmer here. I've got a design question for you.
I've made a mySQL/PHP site for the purpose of displaying the comics I make :) It works pretty well, but now I'm looking to refine my interface with it. One of my problems is with the primary key; currently I have it defined to auto_increment. The annoying thing about this is if I delete a comic and add a new one, the primary key will number it after the old one, not after the last one on the table, so that there will be a gap in the numbering. My code currently relies on the primary keys to be continuous... I know in an ideal world I'd program to handle gaps but anyway, this is just a personal site XD And ideally I would like the primary keys to be continuous even if I did have it programed to handle gaps, just because I'm a bit OC like that :P
Anyway, I'm wondering how to make the tables easier to edit. Should/can I take out the auto_increment command and just assign a key 1+ the last key in the table via PHP, when I upload a new comic? Should I do something complicated like load the edited info to a temp new table, destroy and recreate the old table, and repopulate it with the new list each time I delete a row? Or is there a command that will reset the auto_increment feature to the last primary key (or to a number of my choosing)?
Thanks!

EDIT: on looking around online more, it seems the common advice is to drop then readd the ID column, which will automatically renumber the rows. Seems a little sketchy, but if it works I guess it'd do. Thoughts?

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/mysql/100171.html