Re: autonumber problem

Armen Stein <ArmenStein@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in
news:MPG.1fb125a9908a0ce19896b1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx:

In article <uDMQ4RP$GHA.1128@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
bamoob@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx says...
As somebody (Rick Brandt, I think) pointed out, in some limited
cases such as the reference number assigned to a particular call
in a calls database, autonumber probably makes as much sense as
anything, and has the advantage of not needing error handling to
guard against duplicate values in a multi-user environment. It
doesn't affect the answers in this post advising against using
autonumber, but I will suggest that "never" may be a bit strong.

"David W. Fenton" <XXXusenet@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in
message news:Xns986CA69039908f99a49ed1d0c49c5bbb2@xxxxxxxxxxxx
John Vinson <jvinson@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in
news:j8kck250k8vpcpodptmm3demev57gunrfo@xxxxxxx:

An Autonumber is NOTHING other than a unique, meaningless key.
It is *not* a count, it is *not* guaranteed to be squenetial,
and it *will* have gaps in the numbering system. If you use it
in this spirit it's perfectly acceptable; if you are expecting
it to match the record count on the Form, or to be gapless, or
to always be sorted in numerical order, you'll be
disappointed!

I agree. In certain instances we make it visible to the user and
call is something like "Reference Number". We tell them it's like
a serial number - it's a unique, never-changing way to refer to
that record.

There has to be a strong reason for revealing it to the user, yes.

You shouldn't be putting it on every form as a matter of course,
though.

--
David W. Fenton http://www.dfenton.com/
usenet at dfenton dot com http://www.dfenton.com/DFA/
.

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