Restart record numbering back at #1

[Suzy]

I have spent hours developing a staff database with various reports and
forms. Doesn't sound like a big thing, but boy it was a huge achievement for
me being a less than beginner user of Access! Anyway, when I leave my
current job I want to take the 'bones' of the database with me and be able to
repopulate it with information for staff at my new employer.

How do I restart the record numbering back at #1?

 

[Wayne Morgan]

If you delete the records then compact the database, the autonumbers should
start again at #1. However, if you are relying on the autonumbers to be
meaningful beyond just creating a unique ID for each record, you're likely
to run into problems.

 

[Douglas J Steele]

Just to expand on Wayne's answer, Autonumbers exist for one purpose only: to
provide a (virtually guaranteed) unique value that can be used as a primary
key. 436, 439, 440 serves that purpose just as well as 1, 2, 3 does.

It's unusually to show the end user the actual value of the Autonumber,
since no meaning should be placed on its value. Autonumbers are not
guaranteed to be sequential: if you start to insert a record, and then
change your mind, the number that would have been used is lost to you. As
well, should you decide to replicate the database, the Autonumber will be
changed from sequential to random.

 

[Suzy]

Thank you both Wayne and Doug for your replies... you have pointed out
something I really didn't think about with regard to the autonumbering. Many
thanks, you have answered my question and given me a little more to think
about.

 

[Tony Toews]

Anyway, when I leave my
current job I want to take the 'bones' of the database with me and be able to
repopulate it with information for staff at my new employer.

Legally you can't do this. If you are an employee, any work you
perform for your employer belongs to your employer. You can
recreate the work from scratch but you can't take it with you.

Tony
--
Tony Toews, Microsoft Access MVP
Please respond only in the newsgroups so that others can
read the entire thread of messages.
Microsoft Access Links, Hints, Tips & Accounting Systems at
http://www.granite.ab.ca/accsmstr.htm