Question: Is it possible in MySQL to set the starting value of a primary key index, so it starts at say 15 instead of 1?

A quick hack would be to write a loop of 14 junk entries, add the correct data then delete the first 14 entries but I would be interested to know if it is possible in a neater way!

The reason for doing this is the overhaul of an existing site where indexes don't all start at 1 but they are used to link items in different tables

Answer: 
Yes, the auto increment start position can be changed by altering the table.

```
ALTER TABLE t AUTO_INCREMENT = ?;

```
you can place auto increment value directly in `SELECT` statement - just place required 15 and next record would start as 16, 17, ...