Select Increment Counter in MySQL

To select increment counter in MySQL, first you need to declare and initialize a variable. The syntax is as follows −

set @anyVariableName=0;
select yourColumnName,
@anyVariableName:=@anyVariableName+1 as anyVariableName
from yourTableName;

To understand the above syntax and set an increment counter, let us first create a table. The query to create a table is as follows.

mysql> create table incrementCounterDemo
-> (
-> Name varchar(100)
-> );
Query OK, 0 rows affected (1.01 sec)

Insert some records in the table using insert command. The query is as follows.

mysql> insert into incrementCounterDemo values('John');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.18 sec)

mysql> insert into incrementCounterDemo values('Carol');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.20 sec)

mysql> insert into incrementCounterDemo values('David');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.14 sec)

mysql> insert into incrementCounterDemo values('Mike');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.21 sec)

mysql> insert into incrementCounterDemo values('Bob');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.12 sec)

mysql> insert into incrementCounterDemo values('Sam');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.16 sec)

Display all records from the table using select statement. The query is as follows −

mysql> select *from incrementCounterDemo;

The following is the output.

+-------+
| Name  |
+-------+
| John  |
| Carol |
| David |
| Mike  |
| Bob   |
| Sam   |
+-------+
6 rows in set (0.00 sec)

Set variable

mysql> set @counter=0;
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)

Now select the increment counter.

mysql> select Name,
-> @counter:=@counter+1 as IncrementingValuebyOne
-> from incrementCounterDemo;

The following is the output.

+-------+------------------------+
| Name  | IncrementingValuebyOne |
+-------+------------------------+
| John  | 1                      |
| Carol | 2                      |
| David | 3                      |
| Mike  | 4                      |
| Bob   | 5                      |
| Sam   | 6                      |
+-------+------------------------+
6 rows in set (0.00 sec)