why is autonumber field changed in random

[Peter]

I created a table with several fields. The first field is
name ID (datatype is increment). Somehow or somewhere on
the line the "system" (which is propably me) changes the
datatype into random.

So the numbers in this field are not number 201, 202, 203
but 223546, 4748599, 36363663 (randomly).

Two questions.:
1 : why is this happening?
2 : since i do not use the name ID in a any kind of a
relation, will this harm my database or slower down the
database?.

Thanks

Peter

 

[Van T. Dinh]

Open the Table in DesignView, select the AutoNumber Field and check in the
Properties pane (lower left pane). You might have changed it to Random by
accident.

If you use replication, the AutoNumber is automatically changed to random.

AutoNumber is used to provide uniqueness to each Record and therefore it is
often used as the link Field. If you already used some other means for
linking Tables, then AutoNumber Field values are not important whether they
are incremental or random. It shouldn't slow your application down.

 

[Al Camp]

Peter,
In the table that contains your autonumber field, set the autonumber
field to "Increment" rather than "Random"