Unique Time Stamp

[jmawebco]

I have a process by which data is updated in a temp table and when the
user is done and clicks a "Finish" button all the data from the temp
table is moved to a permanent table. What I want to do is set a unique
time stamp for each record before they are moved to the permanent
table. The time stamp has to be unique for each and every record so I
can't just use the "Format(Now(),yyyymmddhhmmss)" command as this will
put the same time stamp for all records.

If anyone knows how I can do this please let me know.

Thanks!!

 

[Douglas J Steele]

Set the field's Default value to Now(), and don't populate it when you're
moving the data so that it picks up the default.

 

[Michel Walsh]

Hi,


If you add only one record at a time, you can use an extra field, in the
table, with a default value like:


= Now( )


The precision is to the second, which is not funny if you insert 10
records/sec.


You can add a constraint of "no duplicated value" to enforce uniqueness on
this "computed" field.


Hoping it may help,
Vanderghast, Access MVP

 

[Rob Oldfield]

Why does the time stamp "have to be unique"?

 

[jmawebco]

This would work fine but since multiple records are being added at once
it would create duplicates and that can not happen.

 

[jmawebco]

This is what I'm trying to do;

in the append command make the field value equal to
"Format(Now(),yyyymmddhhmm) + x" X here represent the value assigned in
a for next loop.

The idea is to generate a unique value for each record added and my
initial idea seemed to give me that but it is not working. The time
stamp is added but the value of x is not being added to the timestamp
before it is inserted into the database.

 

[Michel Walsh]

Hi,


As Rob pointed out, in this case, you can also add a standard autoincrement
field and use BOTH fields (the =Now() and the autoIncrement) as potential
key. Indeed, even if you add "n" records in a batch, they are likely to get
all the same timestamp (to the closest second), but the autoincrement will
be different, playing the role of you "X", but in a different field.

You can then join both fields in a query, through concatenation of their
string representation.

Hoping it may help,
Vanderghast, Access MVP

 

[jmawebco]

Would it be possible for you to give me a sample of what you are
talking about? I thought about combining the timestamp with an
autoincrement number but can't seem to get the end result desired. I
guess I'm not formating the combination of the two items properly. If
you can give me a simple example I would be very grateful.

 

[Michel Walsh]

Hi,



Sounds like


SELECT Format(timeStampField, "yyyymmddhhnnss") & "-" &
CStr(autonumberField)
FROM myTable



where I used a - to delimit the timestamp and the autonumber generated
field value.


Hoping it may help,
Vanderghast, Access MVP