Re: AutoNumber Question

good point.
the Auto Number is sort like a VIN on a car, you rarely have to see it, but
its there and its serving a purpose,, and nobody committs it to memory, if
they would it would just confuse them. you convinced me, im an auto number
guy from now on.
thanks


"tina" <nospam@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:PAP2g.35270$az4.14873@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
well, personally, i would not use the SSN as a primary key, for 2 reasons.
first, SSNs are unfortunately not unique; there are many, many duplicates
floating around out there. of course, only one person is using a specific
SSN *legally*, but unless you want to get into tracking down fraudulent
use... second, if you use the SSN as primary key, you'll have it
populating
multiple tables, potentially scattered all over your database. again,
personally, i would safeguard an SSN the same way i would a credit card
number, in my database; put it in one place, and one place only, so it's
easier to protect by whatever means you use to secure proprietary data.

having said all that, there's no reason you can't use an Autonumber as the
primary key field for your employee table *as long as it is a value the
has
no meaning to anyone, only to Access*. your user should never see an
Autonumber primary key, or use it directly to search for a record in the
table. don't confuse how your *user* finds a certain record in a table
with
how *Access* identifies each record in a table. you can easily use an
Autonumber primary key and still allow your user to seach for an employee
record using the person's SSN.

hth


"accessquestions" <vinootz@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:uhOmL0vZGHA.3652@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Hello,
As far as a Primary Key is concerned (for an Employee Table)
I have read numerous times on the boards NOT to use the Auto Number
feature,
I'm not sure exactly why, although I could see where the random number
can
confuse some.
Would anyone recommend using a SSN instead? It will be unique, and it
will
serve as a good reference to the employee.
Any thoughts of why or why not?

Thanks Again !

VL






.

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