[AccessD] Autonumber Assigned Immediately

Now, Susan, you've been around computers and users long enough to know
that "it might never happen" is a joke! ;->  Whatever you DON'T plan for
will ALWAYS happen, sooner or later!

Charlotte Foust


-----Original Message-----
From: Susan Harkins [mailto:ssharkins at bellsouth.net] 
Sent: Thursday, September 08, 2005 2:13 PM
To: 'Access Developers discussion and problem solving'
Subject: Re: [AccessD] Autonumber Assigned Immediately


My point would be -- if there are no rules, why bother until there are
some? It might never happen. 

Susan H. 

Six months later you are told that all the numbers have to be padded to
6 digits. Ok, either change the field to a text field (if it wasn't such
already), revise the number generator accordingly, and run an update
query on the existing records to include the padding, or find all uses
of the 'number' field everywhere in the database and change the
formatting of the number display. [I know which choice I would make :) 

Then a year down the line the suits say "You have to include an alpha
prefix that shows which office created the record". Fine (As long as you
can identify the office within the rest of the data). You change the
'number' generating code to tack on the prefix for new records and then
run an update query to add the prefix to all the existing records. 

Sit back and wait for the next bright idea about what extra information
can be stuffed into a 'serial number'. All of this is just a minor pain
in the butt because of course you are not using this field as a Primary
Key, that's handled by an autonumber that no one sees, so all your
relationships are intact.


-- 
AccessD mailing list
AccessD at databaseadvisors.com
http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/accessd
Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com