ID number suddenly increased # of digits

[Luther]

Hi,

In my database the ID number is an Autonumber field; the problem suddenly
happens that when a user adds a record, the ID has 8 digits vs. 5 digits as
it used to generate before. For example, it went from 21951 to 49089777.

Any help with this will be greatly appreciated.

 

[LeAnne]

Hi,

In my database the ID number is an Autonumber field; the problem suddenly
happens that when a user adds a record, the ID has 8 digits vs. 5 digits as
it used to generate before. For example, it went from 21951 to 49089777.

Any help with this will be greatly appreciated.

Hi Luther,

Help with what? I'm not trying to be cute or anything...this sounds like
perfectly normal behavior for an autonumber. Autonumbers are supposed
to be *unique.* That doesn't always mean sequential,
incremented-by-one-unit numbers. For example, 21951 to 49089777 are
sequential (21951 < 49089777), and both are certainly unique.
Autonumbers will ALWAYS have gaps...should you delete a record, or
perform a massive append query, or (ghod forbid) replicate the database,
the autonumbers will go out of whack. If you insist on trying to get
them to conform to some human-meaningful sequence, you're setting
yourself up for some major headaches down the road. Having said that,
you can delete all records with the out-of-sequence autonumbers, compact
the db to reset the counter, then re-append the records.

hth,

LeAnne

 

[Luther]

Thanks, LeAnne. I knew about gaps, but didn't think that thre would be such a
big one.

 

[LeAnne]

You're very welcome!

L.