插入行时返回A_I的下一个序列？

I'm using PHP/MySql.

If I have two tables (hypothetically) as follows:

id
name

and

parent_id
action

And id in the first table is set to AUTO_INCREMENT, if I wanted to insert data into both tables in as fewer queries as possible without re-structuring the database, how could I go about this? I need the next A_I value that will be given to the name that is inserted into table one to insert as the parent ID for the second table.

Probably a poor example, but it's a problem I'm trying to solve. At the minute I'm having to do the following:

<?php
$mysqli->query("INSERT INTO table_1 (name) VALUES ('Bob');

$names = $mysqli->query("SELECT * FROM table_1 WHERE name = 'Bob'");

while($name = $names->fetch_assoc()) {

    $mysqli->query("INSERT INTO table_2 (parent_id, action) VALUES ('".$name['id']."', 'run')");

}
?>

But obviously this method breaks if there are people with the same name.

Thanks.

All you need is http://php.net/manual/en/mysqli.insert-id.php

<?php
    $mysqli->query("INSERT INTO table_1 (name) VALUES ('Bob')");
    $mysqli->query("INSERT INTO table_2 (parent_id, action) VALUES ($mysqli->insert_id,'run')");


?>

You can use PHP function $mysqli->insert_id or MySQL function last_insert_id()

I would do it this way:

$mysqli->query("INSERT INTO table_1 (name) VALUES ('Bob')");
$mysqli->query("INSERT INTO table_2 (parent_id, action) VALUES (LAST_INSERT_ID(),'run')");