Are there any potential pitfalls to consider when allowing the database to handle ID generation automatically?

One potential pitfall of allowing the database to handle ID generation automatically is that it may not be the most efficient method, especially in high traffic applications where generating IDs can become a bottleneck. To solve this issue, you can implement a custom ID generation strategy in your application code, such as using UUIDs or a custom algorithm to generate unique IDs.

// Custom ID generation using UUID
$uuid = uniqid();

// Custom ID generation using a timestamp and random number
$id = time() . mt_rand(1000, 9999);