If you are using it for something like user id, then you can use uniqid for that. This command gets a prefixed unique identifier based on the current time in microseconds.
Here's how to use it:
string uniqid ([ string $prefix = "" [, bool $more_entropy = FALSE]] )
Where prefix is used if you are generating ids for a lot if hosts at the same time, you can use this to differentiate between various hosts if id is generated at the same microsecond.
more_entropy increases the likeness of getting unique values.
Usage:
<?php
/* A uniqid, like: 4b3403665fea6 */
printf("uniqid(): %s\r\n", uniqid());
/* We can also prefix the uniqid, this the same as
* doing:
*
* $uniqid = $prefix . uniqid();
* $uniqid = uniqid($prefix);
*/
printf("uniqid('php_'): %s\r\n", uniqid('php_'));
/* We can also activate the more_entropy parameter, which is
* required on some systems, like Cygwin. This makes uniqid()
* produce a value like: 4b340550242239.64159797
*/
printf("uniqid('', true): %s\r\n", uniqid('', true));
?>
rand(). 2. grab the current timestamp. 3. add aprefixthat could be a string depending on your business logic. 4. combine these three and get a random unique number! This process ensures better accuracy of not getting the same number.