Using phpymyAdmin I want to update every row's primary key and need an SQL statement to do it. I assume that because I'm dealing with Primary Keys that I'd need to create a temp column which when completed I can delete the first PK column and replace it with the new one?

There are 2 columns
PK
Placename

So I firstly want to order all the rows by placename in alphabetical order. All the primary keys are mucked up and horrible and so I want to make it nice and orderly!

So I need to start by changing the first row's PK to 1. I then want to update every ID with an increment of one i.e. the PK of the next row will be 2 - all the way until the final row is updated.

Any ideas?? I obviously don't want to do it manually if possible...fingers crossed!!

but why? what is the purpose of your PK column?

Well the Primary Key is to uniquely identify each place name. The reason I say that all the primary keys are mucked up is that I have deleted about half the contents of the table and so PKs go 1, 3, 8, 12, 13, 16 etc. The table is not actually in use yet and I'd prefer to have it a 'tidy' as possible before it goes into use.
i.e
PK
1
2
3
4
5
6

why?

a primary key rarely has any significance outside the db itself - its merelty a pointer.

if you want a sequence then you will need to relaod the data, ensuring that all child tables have the revised key aswell. it can be done, but apart from looking orderly it acheives nothing.

The only reasons I can see to do it are if you are worried that you will run out of autogenerated numbers.

often I find it usefull to point out to novice userrs that the systme generated number HAS NO MEANING so they don't start applying a menaing to such numbers.