Quote
How would I set up an ID something like an inspection ID ...
If your Inspection table has an auto-incrementing ID column, then you get this
for free.
Simply insert the Inspection record
without the ID field in the column list and the database will generate a value for you. Use the last_insert_id() function to retrieve that value for inserting into other, related, tables.
Quote
... with an ID of 'Inspection 1'
Don't do this.
Just store the numeric ID value (say, 123) and construct the
Human-readable form as and when you need it.
select concat( 'Inspection ', ID ) title, ...
from Inspections
where ...
+----------------+
| title |
+----------------+
| Inspection 123 |
+----------------+
Regards, Phill W.