Primary Key...Autonumber Or Custom?
Jul 10, 2005
Just a general question...
When you make a primary key is it better to use and Autonumber or a Custom one? I have for the most part used auto...easy, convienient and well I have never had a problem yet (been pretty serious on Access for about 1 year). But I just read that ref integ doesn't work on Autonumbers? which would also mean cascading update & deleting correct?
I have looked at Northwind Access sample and all except "Customer" they use Auto. Well then to make a custom Primary field wouldn't I have to do that at the form level? like "CustomPrimKey = Left([CustFirstName],2 & Left([CustLastName],2) & [PriKeySetAtAutoNum]" or something like that to get what I want. I imagine you would automate this as opposed to letting the operator manually enter them.
And then as in the Northwind sample how do you know which tables need the custom numbering and which ones don't.
As I have learned on my own some of the "basics" elude me until they come back to bite me.
Thanks
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Mar 29, 2005
I am in the process of developing a DB for work. The DB is used to track incident reports and lost/found property reports.
I was interested in using 2 custom autonumbers for 2 different reports within the same DB. I would like to use the format of "I" for an incident report, "F" for the found property reports. So when I start a new Incident report it would generate the following number; "I05-03-001" The "I" specifing that it is an incident report, "05" for the current year, "03" for the current month, and "001 as the next sequential number for the reports for that month.
Does anyone have any suggestions on how I can get this done? I would very much appreciate your help.
John
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Mar 2, 2005
I currently have a few tables that use an autonumber as the primary key, however, I would like the autonumber to start with a series of letters if possible. For example: instead of it creating an ID of 1, then, 2, 3, 4, and so on, I would like it to append lets say "ABC" to the front of it; ABC1, ABC2, ABC3, etc.
AP
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Nov 2, 2005
I was hoping to run this by you guys to see if I'm doing anything horribly wrong. I have done a number of searches related to custom Autonumbers and I think this is okay but any suggestions/confirmations would be greatly appreciated.
I want to create a random Primary Key that will also be used as an item #. I know that in many cases this is frowned upon *but* I do not need the number to hold any significance I just want it to be unique. However I want to represent the item # as a set of 6 Hex digits so the standard Long Integer is too large. 16^6 = 16777216. No 0 index so 16777215.
I create my own bounded number with a macro (=Int(Rand(16777216-1))+1 )and put that as the default value. It is indexed and set to no duplicates. Is this correct?
When I display the field in a form or report I call a module which translates the number into Hex and appends leading zeros. I am currently having a problem where inserting a new record does not display the translated index correctly, but after it has been inserted it is fine.
If you have any comments or suggestions about how this could work even better (or if this wont work at all!) please let me know.
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Jul 8, 2013
Custom Autonumber based on lookup. I am creating an access database where autonumbers to be work.
I have a table with Segment Name my main table will lookup the values of segment table.
Based on the Segment I choose Autonumber has to be created
My main table to house each record (tbl_import) has the following fields:
ID
Segment
Port
MOT
TOTAL CIF
Child table - Segment contains
Development
Deployment
Testing
So based on segment field which I choose
Development autonumber has to set DEV-1001 and Deployment has to set DEP-2001, TEST-3001
My thought is if there a way to code the Segment field to lookup the segment what I choose based on the Autonumber series starts (similar to a vlookup in excel), then concatenate the DEV in the Record ID field.
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Aug 17, 2005
My shiny new database is ready to go - now I have deleted all my trial data and want to re-set the autonumber primary key of my main table to start at "1" (I thought I could delete it and re-insert it but it won't let me). Suggestions?
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Aug 12, 2013
I need to create an "autonumber" field in the following format:
FYYMMXX
Where F is a constant, YY is the year, MM is the month, and XX is an incremented number. So for example, the first record in August of 2013 would be "F130801".
I've been checking other threads but haven't been able to follow them to a resolution. I think there is a way to do this within my form...
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May 4, 2007
Any ideas on tagging my primary key (currently autonum as a data type) with an "M" on the front of it. I guess i wanted to keep it as autonumber so i wouldn't have to key in a value
Thought maybe i could create a new field and do an "M" & [ID] in the default value where [ID] is the autonum primary key field but I guess I'm not doing it right - get an error trying to save saying it can't find the field [ID]
thanks for any suggestions!
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Jun 25, 2007
Hi!
I am a new member of this forum and new to access.
I need to make a data base and I would to have my primary Key as an autonumber. I would like to use ID numbers that have already been assigned but they have letters in the beginning, they are GKAD0001 etc. so at the moment I just have them as text that wont allow duplicates, but really I would like them as and autonumber so when new data is added it automatically assigns the next number.
Is this possible?
Thankyou very much for your help.
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Feb 1, 2008
Hi,
I need to create a table with 2 sets of different information both referring to job types. the problem is that i need the autonumber which created the job number to scale together. so both tables have a primary key of "job number" and i want the autonumber to only ever use 1 number in both tables.
e.g.
job type 1 - autonumbers - 1,2,3,4,6,7,9,10
job type 2 - autonumbers - 5,8,11,12
is there anyway of achieving this?
Any help greatly appreciated
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Apr 15, 2005
I am new to Access, and have spent the last few weeks reading everything I could get my hands on about creating databases. I am working on a new database for my office and I need some help please.
I am trying to create normalized tables, so I have broken down my tables into the smallest possible field groups and linked the tables via primary and foreign keys using autonumbers and the primary key in parent tables. My question is how do I have my users interface in forms with actual data instead of the ID numbers but have the ID numbers inserted in the field. Here is a sample of my address table to demonstrate my question:
tblAddresses
AddressID Autonumber PK
StaffID Number (FK to tblStaff)
AddressTypeID Number (FK to tblAddressType)
Address1
Address2
CityID Number (FK to tblCities)
StateID Number (FK to tblStates)
ZipID Number (FK to tblZips)
Obviously all of my tables are not shown here but this should show what I am looking for.
So, how can I let the user input/select the actual data from the forms in combo and text boxes but actually input the ID numbers into the underlying tables. If a user is inserting a new record and selects state I want them to be able to input/select CA not the StateID 1.
I don't know why I am having such a hard time with this, I seem to understand the other concepts but this one has me stumped. I found a few ways to do it, but I don't think they are right and I want to learn this the correct way. Any help is greatly appreciated, thanks!
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Mar 13, 2006
I have three tables.
EAch has a field called ID that is an Autonumber that is the primary key.
When I enter data via a form each record has a different ID across the three tables.
Does this mean they are not linking up correctly?
I have attached my databaset if that helps.
Thanks.
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May 9, 2007
Hi,
The database I've inherited has a primary key autonumber set up which is randomly generating numbers. It also has another field which has yet to be used, of a clients reference number.
I thought it would make sense to use the reference number field as the primary key, as it seems redundant otherwise and it would give us another field to perform searches on (if we record a clients reference number on their paper file, then finding them on the database would be much quicker).
Because of the relationships in the database, I didn't want to remove the existing primary key as I'm afraid it would mess up the whole thing. I was wondering if there is a way of having the autonumber which is generated in the primary key to be automatically copied to the clients reference number field? This would leave the primary key intact but give us this extra level of information to search on.
Thanks.
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Sep 30, 2005
Hi there,
strange query... I have a testing database which I have filled full of test data. I now want to create an empty copy of this database, so I copied this, removed all records, however the tables where I have a field named ID, which is the Primary Key field and is Autonumber set to increment, I cant seem to get this to set back to 1. I tried deleting the ID field completely, closing DB, and adding it again, yet it STILL remembers the next number up from the last record I had created previously??
Can anyone offer any help as to how I can get this set back to 1, as now I am finished testing I want to essentially start all table records fresh.
Many thanks for your help as always,
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Jun 25, 2014
I have a table that has a primary key that does an autonumber in increments. Then I made some queries that will append records by date and then also another query that will delete what was appended. Then I created a reverse sequence of this process in case I change my mind and would like to put back the records I archived, however, when I do this, the primary key is now thrown off and will still revert to the last primary key that was appended before the archive ever took place. In other words it still thinks that the records I appended before I did the reverse, are still there. So now it will not let me save the record because it is a duplicate.
Is there a way to set the autonumber for the primary key to where I want it to begin?
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Mar 4, 2013
I've just begun using microsoft access and would like to create a primary key on a table of data that has been sorted alphabetically. However, when I try to create this key (designview -> auto number-> increment) it autonumbers for the column the way it was before i sorted it. Is there a known way of doing this?
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Mar 30, 2007
I have an existing contact information database which consists of a number of tables, the main table has a primary key which is currently set to NUMBER.
There is a relationship between it and 2 other tables via that key (ContactID).
I would now like to change the primary key (ContactID) to AUTONUMBER, so that any new records added, have a number assigned automatically. I also need any newly created primary key number to be used in the child tables created as a result.
Is this possible ? (without renumbering my existing tables/records)
many thanks
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Jun 5, 2015
How can I insert an 'ID' field into an existing table at first field as primary key using AutoNumber? The table will then be populated.
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Jan 31, 2012
I have a simple database that I inherited, that contains basic customer contact info. We want to start adding more functionality to the database, so I've done alot of research to learn about how to begin normalizing my data.The existing table does not contain a useful primary key, since we may have multiple individuals from the same company, companies with very similar names, etc.
I would like to add an AutoNumbered field to use as a CustomerID/primary key, but I can't seem to find a way to do so. Here is what I've tried so far:
I have tried to add a field to the table, and make it an AutoNumber data type. When I do so, I can error message saying that I cannot make a field AutoNumber if any other field in the table already has data entered in it.I have tried to create a new table containing only an AutoNumber PrimaryID field, and then import data from the existing table, but that just creates a 3rd table.
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Jul 14, 2014
The above image is of a table which I need to update according to a new data on daily basis. As you can see when I added two records at the last , the AutoNumber primary key of the table jumped by thousands . I have used the following query to update the table
Code:
db.Execute "INSERT INTO D_Counterparty (CPTY_ENTITY_ID,CPTY_DESC)"_ & "SELECT Ctpy_Entity_Id,Ctpy_Entity_Legal_Nm"_ & "FROM NewCU LEFT JOIN D_Counterparty ON D_Counterparty.CPTY_ENTITY_ID=NewCU.Ctpy_Entity_Id"
I never changed the AutoNumber from incremental to random and I have also tried re-seeding it but had no success. Also when I inserted the sample values using a sample table ,the AutoNumber was working fine . Here's that query
Code:
db.Execute "INSERT INTO D_Counterparty (CPTY_ENTITY_ID,CPTY_DESC,) SELECT a,b, FROM sample"
I did not use join in this query ...
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Nov 21, 2013
I have two tables linked to each other in one to many relationship. Instead of auto number, the date and shift (Text) is being used as the primary keys (Composite Primary Key). Here is the tables structures,
Payouts Table:
Date: Primary Key
Shift (Day or Night) : Primary Key
Bills Table:
Date: Primary Key
Shift (Day or Night): Primary Key
Autonumber: Primary Key
The tables Payouts and Bills has one to many relationship. One payout row can have many bills. The problem is that I want to start the Autonumber in bills table everyday from 1. As date and shift are different for every day so even if i start bills from 1 everyday, it wont make same primary key. I can do it manually but I want to make it automatically.
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Sep 15, 2006
I have created a very simple Access database with a CompaniesTbl, ContactsTbl and CallsTbl. The database is used to record telesales contact with customers. The tables are set up like this:
The CompaniesTbl has an AutoNumber Primary Key field called CompanyID.
The ContactsTbl has an AutoNumber Primary Key field called ContactID and a foreign key called CompanyID.
The CallsTbl has an AutoNumber Primary Key field called CallID and foreign key called ContactID.
The relationships are set up in the relationships window and referential integrity imposed.
Twice now, while editing a contact record, an error has occured. Task Manager has had to be used to get out of it. The error is either a 'run-time error with a message that does not mean anything' or it says 'unrecognized database format' (!?).
If you open the database again the ContactID field in the Contacts Table is no longer a Primary Key field. If you look in the relationships window - the relationship between the Companies and Contacts tables no longer exists.
Any ideas much appreciated.
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Mar 29, 2006
HI all, I have recently created my own custom toolbar for my database which works fine on my computer, but when the database is transfered to another computer via a memory stick (needs to be done as it is going to be used on remote laptops away from the main network), the custom toolbar does not carry over. Instead of the custom toolbar being shown, the normal, main toolbars are reset to the default ones shown.
Is there a way of stopping the toolbars reseting when transfering the database so that my custom toolbar is the default toolbar?
Thanks for the help!
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Jul 13, 2006
I have a custom toolbar in my application. However, it isn't visible at the top of the application window and when I try to make it so - via View - Toolbars - it doesn't appear on the list of available bars.
I had assumed that I had somehow deleted it, but I know it's still present somewhere, as when I try to recreate it, I get a message saying so.
How can I get the toolbar to be displayed? :confused:
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Jan 1, 2007
I have a database for call outs, i had a problem with double booking, but cured that, my problem now is every time my work mates try to book me in that go into the debug box (accidently) all i need is a ok button only msgbox to say the time is already booked. can anyone plaease help.
here is my db if any one want to have a look
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Feb 13, 2007
Hi all. I have tried searches on here and via google but can't find a difinitive answer to my question. What i would like to do is create a custom help file that will run when the user requests it. I know there is a property option to set a custom help file within a form but i am unsure of the correct process to do this to get it working.
Could someone please help me understand what needs to be done.
Thanks in advance.
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