Auto Number field question

[Guest]

I was tasked with building a new Database and trying to move existing records
from an old Database into the new Database. The problem with the old
database is duplicate records because there were no constraints or Unique
Identifiers in the old DB. The users want a field called Project ID to auto
number on the new database, but they want to add the old Project ID numbers
into the new database. Is this possible?

 

[Joseph Meehan]

I was tasked with building a new Database and trying to move existing
records from an old Database into the new Database. The problem with
the old database is duplicate records because there were no
constraints or Unique Identifiers in the old DB. The users want a
field called Project ID to auto number on the new database, but they
want to add the old Project ID numbers into the new database. Is
this possible?

Possible but not wise.

I suggest you may not want to use Autonumber for that use. Autonumbers
are designed to provide unique numbers. It in not designed to provide
numbers in order and for a number of reasons may not do so. As a result
using them in any application where the user sees the numbers is likely to
end up with confusion.

There are other ways of providing the numbers you want depending on the
particual application. I don't have the code handy but I am sure someone
will offer it to you.