autonumber index problem

[mpwelsh]

I have a database for a church food pantry that has a index/control
number that is autonumbered. I made a replica since data will be
entered from different computers. After I sync my autonumber
index/control went from

1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11 to
-1832916356,-512560006,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,153319198,700507207,983802621,1126803564

this after adding 6 records (3 from the 'slave computer' and 3 from the
'master computer').

This is currently in the test stage so there is no real information but
I would think that the autonumber field would autonumber correctly, or
is it something weird because I replicate the database?


thanks

 

[Brendan Reynolds]

That is expected and documented behaviour when a database is replicated. See
the following help topic, specifically the fourth link in the help topic ...

http://office.microsoft.com/assistance/hfws.aspx?AssetID=HP052167961033

There isn't any other way for autonumbering to work in a replicated
database. It can't be incremental, as there is no way for one replica to
know what numbers have been used in other replicas in the set.

 

[Douglas J. Steele]

Adding to what Brendan said, the only point of an Autonumber field is to
provide a (practically guaranteed) unique value that can be used as a
primary key. The values you list still fulfill that role. Seldom, if ever,
is the value of the Autonumber field even shown to the user. If the value of
the number is important to you, then an Autonumber is probably not the
correct choice.