Start From "Auto Number"
XNoDE
Can anyone tell me of how to set up an auto number field
type to Start From 10,000. I am building a db to track
customers, products and purchases and I would like the
New Customers to receive an account number which is
automatically generated but doesn't start at 1, as an
acct no. 1 sounds pretty lame. Can anyone help me.
TIA,
Joan Wild
the Autonumber field. Then delete this record. Next one will be 10000.
However, you do realize that autonumbers will have gaps, and can be
negative. Customer -43256 might sound lame too.
Joan Wild
Access MVP
"XNoDE" <amt...@kinkos.com> wrote in message
news:1ce401c242e7$22fc16a0$b1e62ecf@tkmsftngxa04...
Larry Linson
> Can anyone tell me of how
> to set up an auto number field
> type to Start From 10,000. I
> am building a db to track
> customers, products and pur-
> chases and I would like the
> New Customers to receive an
> account number which is
> automatically generated but
> doesn't start at 1, as an acct no. 1
> sounds pretty lame. Can anyone help me.
AutoNumbers work very nicely for their intended purpose, to
be surrogate keys, and to be used internally to join related
tables. They were not intended to be displayed to users
(though there is nothing that prevents them being
displayed), and they aren't always monotonically increasing
as they are most of the time. Old-time
green-eyeshade-and-sleeve-garter bookeepers and accountants
tend to go ballistic when they see _gaps_ in what they
expect to be a complete set of numbers, and you certainly
may get gaps with AutoNumber. The simplest case is when
someone starts to enter a new record and then cancels -- the
AutoNumber that was assigned is not "returned to the
system"; it is just never used. Other circumstances can
cause larger gaps.
If you want to assign customer numbers, it would be better
to use your own function, and a separate file or use the
DMax function on the Customer file. Many firms "customer
numbers" have alphabetic characters as well, and AutoNumber
"doesn't do alphabetic".
Charlie Smith
AutoNumber) (Temporarily) then add 10000 into that field
of a record (must have only this one record in the db).
Then re-open the table and set the Field Properies back
to AutoNumber.
>
Michael
That would be great but once you enter data into the field
you cannot change the data type to AutoNumber. If you delete the record and
create an AutoNumber it starts at one again. The append query is the best
option.
I hope this helps! If you have additional questions on this topic, please
reply to this posting.
Regards,
Michael Noto
Microsoft Support
This posting is provided 'AS IS' with no warranties, and confers no rights.
Tony Toews
>However, you do realize that autonumbers ... can be
>negative. Customer -43256 might sound lame too.
Only if random is specified in the New Values property for the
AutoNumber field.
Tony
--
Tony Toews, Microsoft Access MVP
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Joan Wild
it will take a while, however a high number could be stuffed into the field
via an Append query. Also I have experienced sizeable gaps with an
autonumber, and if it's large enough and occurs enough, you will be in the
negative numbers even with increment.
Joan Wild
Access MVP
"Tony Toews" <tto...@telusplanet.net> wrote in message
news:o7m5muo8bm49cni5p...@4ax.com...
Tony Toews
>It is possible to get negative numbers if increment is specified. Granted
>it will take a while, however a high number could be stuffed into the field
>via an Append query.
Ah, yes, it took me a while to figure out that problem once a while
back. I then changed the base query to not include duplicate records
so that problem didn't happen any more.
>Also I have experienced sizeable gaps with an
>autonumber, and if it's large enough and occurs enough, you will be in the
>negative numbers even with increment.
Good point although my autonumbers even in my clients largest table of
200K records are still roughly around the same number. Not too many
deletes in there.