> there a way to have it not start from 0? I'd like to give
> users an 4 or 5 digit user id.
With most databases, you can specify the first value used by an
autonumber/identity/sequence. I would imagine that you can do this with
Access, although I'd generally recommend against it for reasons I'll mention
below.
> Also, another thing I've been thinking of: is there a way to
> reuse old numbers once they get freed up? Therefore instead
> of assigning someone with the next auto-number they would
> get the lowest freed up number in the database. This question
> is just out of curiosity but I won't start doing it yet (no
> ones in the database yet!).
This is something that can be done with most databases, so again I would
imagine that you can do this with Access. However, the point of using an
autonumber field is simply to provide some unique value that can be used as
a surrogate primary key. It isn't intended to provide you with a value that
is useful as a piece of actual data from the end user's perspective, but
rather to give you a piece of data which only has value in describing your
other data. If you use a piece of actual data - a natural primary key - what
happens when that data changes for any reason? What happens to relationships
between tables that depend on that key?
If you really want to create a key which has some value as a piece of actual
data, I'd recommend that you avoid autonumbers entirely.
Dave Watts, CTO, Fig Leaf Software
http://www.figleaf.com/
phone: 202-797-5496
fax: 202-797-5444
[Todays Threads] [This Message] [Subscription] [Fast Unsubscribe] [User Settings]
