store a letter and leading zeros in an an access autonumbe..

Bruce · External Since: Jun 27, 2006 Posts: 18

Is it possible to create an auto number field that starts with a letter and 5
leading zero's? how would i do this? in access

Thanks
Bruce

Gina Whipp · External Since: Sep 25, 2003 Posts: 426

Bruce,

By definition autoNUMBER is a number. Numbers contain no zeros or letters.
So the answer to your question as it is is, No. HOWEVER, you can create
your own AutoNumber field using *text* as the Data Type and
DMax("YourAutoNumberField","YourTable")+1 (Yours might be a bit more
complicated as letters will be involved.). But perhaps you should explain
why you are wanting a field that allows 0's and letters.

I am also goign to note, that it sounds like you *care* that AutoNumber keep
it's sequence. If that is true then the typical AutoNumber field is not
what you want as it skips and does not reuse.

--
Gina Whipp

"I feel I have been denied critical, need to know, information!" - Tremors
II

http://www.regina-whipp.com/index_files/TipList.htm

"Bruce" <Bruce.RemoveThis@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:3F7166A7-8FA0-44DF-8CFD-0BA13FFB6A83@microsoft.com...
> Is it possible to create an auto number field that starts with a letter
> and 5
> leading zero's? how would i do this? in access
>
> Thanks
> Bruce

John W. Vinson · External Since: Jan 29, 2004 Posts: 2505

On Wed, 28 Oct 2009 12:10:01 -0700, Bruce <Bruce RemoveThis @discussions.microsoft.com>
wrote:

>Is it possible to create an auto number field that starts with a letter and 5
>leading zero's? how would i do this? in access

No.

An Autonumber has one purpose ONLY - to provide a meaningless unique key for a
record. Autonumbers are just numbers; they will ALWAYS have gaps in the
sequence; they cannot be edited. They should be kept "under the hood" and not
exposed to user view.

That said, you can (with a little VBA code) maintain your own "custom counter"
that can be assigned sequentially. Will the letter always by the same, or do
different records have different letters? More details please...
--

John W. Vinson [MVP]