How to preserve ID generated from a PRIMARY KEY when moving data into a new table? I have a large table (~4 million rows, ~100 fields) which I need to split into a few smaller tables by type so it doesn't become unmanageable as it grows. 

Each entry has an ID which is an automatically generated primary key. These keys need to be preserved when the data is moved to new tables. Additionally, new unique keys will need to be generated; and these will need to be unique across all of the smaller tables, rather than simply within each table itself. 

I was thinking that a way to do this would be to transfer the ID into a new field (or a non-automatically generated primary key field?) when transferring the data into the new tables. Once the data is transferred, I could strip down the original table so it is just a primary key so it can continue automatically generating keys for any additional data - i.e. before inserting data into one of the new tables, get a new primary key from the original table. 

However, that seems rather clumsy! 

Also it leaves the question, if a user is referring to an ID without knowing what type the data is (i.e. what table it will be found in), how could they be 'directed' to the correct table? 

I'm sure there must be a better way to do this?
When you have a Primary Key with an auto_increment it will generate a new ID only if you insert a NULL value. If you set ID=4 in your INSERT, the ID will be 4 so you'll not loose your ID during your "move" operation.

We don't have the "SEQUENCE" notion like in Oracle database so your "global ID" problem it's not so easy to do.

Maybe you can try something like this (but it'll add complications for just a 4 millions rows table)

Create a table used for generates your "Global ID", with one int filed auto_incremented:

CREATE TABLE test.sequence_table (next_id int primary key auto_increment);


When you want insert a new row in your child table:

Solution 1: With SELECT in information_schema

BEGIN; -- Start a new Transaction to ensure consistency

INSERT INTO test.sequence_table values (NULL); -- Generate a new ID

SELECT @next_ID:=(auto_increment - 1) FROM information_schema.tables WHERE table_schema="test" AND table_name="sequence_table"; -- Here I use a MySQL Variable but you can store it in PHP or whatever

INSERT INTO child_table values (null, @next_ID, "Max", "SQL"); -- Use your variable

COMMIT; -- Wonderfull :)


Edit after ypercube comment:

Solution 2: With LAST_INSERT_ID()

BEGIN; -- Start a new Transaction to ensure consistency

INSERT INTO test.sequence_table values (NULL); -- Generate a new ID

SELECT @next_ID:=LAST_INSERT_ID(); -- Use of the MySQL function LAST_INSERT_ID()

INSERT INTO child_table values (null, @next_ID, "Max", "SQL"); -- Use your variable

COMMIT; -- Wonderfull :)