Newbie Autonumber question

[Joskin]

Hello Gurus,

I have inherited a database (A2003) where one table issues a Certificate
Number to a customer, from whatever is in an Autonumber field.

I have read that a user / punter should never see the contents of an
Autonumber field (although I'm not bright enough to work out why).

If this is true, then I need a new field to issue the Certificate Numbers.
The previously issued Certificate Numbers will need to remain valid (can I
just copy & paste to a new Long Integer field?), and then the new field will
need to be incremented for each new record (just like Autonumber did).

Is there a recommended way of doing this, or an I wasting my on something I
have mis-understood.

TIA
Joskin

 

[Roger Carlson]

On my website (www.rogersaccesslibrary.com), is a small Access database
sample called "AutonumberProblem.mdb" which illustrates how use the DMax
function to do this in a form.

--
--Roger Carlson
MS Access MVP
Access Database Samples: www.rogersaccesslibrary.com
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[Lynn Trapp]

There is really nothing "inherently" wrong with end users viewing an
Autonumber field, but they usually have a lot of assumptions about them that
cause issues. For one, Autonumber fields are never guaranteed to be
sequential. If you need a sequential number then it won't work for you,
whether your users can see it or not. For another, they are absolutely
meaningless numbers that often mask the fact that there are duplicate
records in your table.

 

[Joseph Meehan]

Hello Gurus,

I have inherited a database (A2003) where one table issues a
Certificate Number to a customer, from whatever is in an Autonumber
field.
I have read that a user / punter should never see the contents of an
Autonumber field (although I'm not bright enough to work out why).

If this is true, then I need a new field to issue the Certificate
Numbers. The previously issued Certificate Numbers will need to
remain valid (can I just copy & paste to a new Long Integer field?),
and then the new field will need to be incremented for each new
record (just like Autonumber did).
Is there a recommended way of doing this, or an I wasting my on
something I have mis-understood.

TIA
Joskin

As long as a old customer who may have been doing business for years
does not find a problem with his number being #12583486 and a new customer
who he knows and knows is new is assigned #143.