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Auto Increment

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    #16
    RE: Auto Increment

    Let's clarify things and cut to the chase...
    Structure: N8.0
    Form: N8.0
    When Alpha increments to the next NUMBER it is 2345.0000 which means that V6 looks at it as 9.4 which exceeds what I have defined.

    Comment


      #17
      RE: Auto Increment

      Phillip

      Attached is an image of what I see that is relatively new behavior - from what I know.

      But it doesn't make a problem for me when I use it. The display is a little unnerving initially, but I haven't had a problem after that.

      If you are still having a problem, send me the database and I'll see if I can reproduce the problem.

      Thanks
      Al Buchholz
      Bookwood Systems, LTD
      Weekly QReportBuilder Webinars Thursday 1 pm CST

      Occam's Razor - KISS
      Normalize till it hurts - De-normalize till it works.
      Advice offered and questions asked in the spirit of learning how to fish is better than someone giving you a fish.
      When we triage a problem it is much easier to read sample systems than to read a mind.
      "Make it as simple as possible, but not simpler."
      Albert Einstein

      http://www.iadn.com/images/media/iadn_member.png

      Comment


        #18
        RE: Auto Increment

        I know there has been a lot of discussion about this in many threads ... but why do you guys insist on using a numeric field for a unique id field? Character field would resolve most issues that people complain about. You can get the same numeric feel ...

        For me personally, I ONLY use a numeric field if I need a calculation. If you are using an autoincrement, you are defining a unique ID and do not need any calculation.

        Good Luck
        Cheryl

        Just my humble opinion :)
        Cheryl
        #1 Designs By Pagecrazy
        http://pagecrazy.com/

        Comment


          #19
          RE: Auto Increment

          Cheryl, the auto increment has worked FINE for over 10 years with Alpha and about 10,000 increments. Then suddenly in V6 things seem to go haywire. If Alpha says there is no problem then I have to live with it and try something different in my programming.

          In addition, if you use a character field when you sort all the fields that start with a 1 will be together, then the 2's etc. I have found that using a numeric field is much more predictable.

          Old habits are hard to break....

          Thanks

          Comment


            #20
            RE: Auto Increment

            Cheryl

            While there are advantages to character id fields, in the Oracle (and some other dbs) world id fields are numeric.

            It's a storage issue and a tweaking of efficiency.

            Numbers are faster for the processor to work with than characters, but not in all cases.

            So there is not a perfect case for either type of storage. Just what's best for that particular situation.
            Al Buchholz
            Bookwood Systems, LTD
            Weekly QReportBuilder Webinars Thursday 1 pm CST

            Occam's Razor - KISS
            Normalize till it hurts - De-normalize till it works.
            Advice offered and questions asked in the spirit of learning how to fish is better than someone giving you a fish.
            When we triage a problem it is much easier to read sample systems than to read a mind.
            "Make it as simple as possible, but not simpler."
            Albert Einstein

            http://www.iadn.com/images/media/iadn_member.png

            Comment


              #21
              RE: Auto Increment

              Hi,

              One thing to consider, if you are entering the record from a form, then make that the first field. Then on the ondepart event commit (save) the record and put the record back in data entry mode to continue on. That's a cheap workaround but you could tell your users the number will just display like that until they tab out of the field.

              Just a thought.

              Dan
              Dan

              Dan Blank builds Databases
              Skype: danblank

              Comment


                #22
                RE: Auto Increment

                Yes, but a decimal point?

                If a separtor is indeed needed, wouldn't it be safer to just use an input mask for this purpose?

                Charles
                SwissCharles
                Between the Alps and a comfy place

                Comment


                  #23
                  RE: Auto Increment

                  The field in question is the first field. In my case,two sections of my data are store location and invoice location, to make data entry easier, in the field rules I have the invoice location filled in from the store location information that was entered. Once you are out of the enter mode then the default value is ignored and this info is not filled. That means the operator has to type the info twice. This is done because 95% of the time the info is the same and why have to type the info twice.

                  Thanks

                  Comment


                    #24
                    RE: Auto Increment

                    Al,

                    I would agree in general that computers process numbers faster than text characters, but that's not the case for DBF tables. All field values in the DBF table are stored as text. Alpha has to convert to numeric internally before you can do math. There's no extra step required for text characters.

                    -- tom

                    Comment


                      #25
                      RE: Auto Increment

                      Philip,

                      If you haven't submitted a working model illustrating the different behavior between V5 and V6 now would seem to be the time to do so.

                      -- t

                      Comment


                        #26
                        RE: Auto Increment

                        Charles

                        The display that is being talked about here is shown in the attachment on a previous message.

                        There is no decimal being stored, it's just a temporary display that shows for a moment and then goes away.
                        Al Buchholz
                        Bookwood Systems, LTD
                        Weekly QReportBuilder Webinars Thursday 1 pm CST

                        Occam's Razor - KISS
                        Normalize till it hurts - De-normalize till it works.
                        Advice offered and questions asked in the spirit of learning how to fish is better than someone giving you a fish.
                        When we triage a problem it is much easier to read sample systems than to read a mind.
                        "Make it as simple as possible, but not simpler."
                        Albert Einstein

                        http://www.iadn.com/images/media/iadn_member.png

                        Comment


                          #27
                          RE: Different Auto Increment Question

                          Is there a way to create an auto-increment field that counts like normal (00001, 00002, etc) but has a different prefix, depending on another field value (AG-00001, PP-00002, etc)

                          Let me explain. I have a Folder table and a Files table and I would like the FileID in the Files table to be autoincrementing, but have a prefix that denotes what folder the file is from. I hope that makes sense. Anyway, I wasn't sure there was a way to do that...

                          Thanks,

                          KD

                          Comment


                            #28
                            RE: Different Auto Increment Question

                            You probably need two fields - an autoincrement field and a calculated field that concatenates the prefix to the number, where the prefix is calced based upon your criteria.
                            Peter
                            AlphaBase Solutions, LLC

                            [email protected]
                            https://www.alphabasesolutions.com


                            Comment


                              #29
                              RE: Different Auto Increment Question

                              Thanks for the suggestion.
                              But now I can't get Alpha to increment the file # without "incrementing" the prefix as well in the combined field. In case you haven't guessed, I'm pretty new to database manipulation. Thanks for your help.
                              K

                              Comment


                                #30
                                RE: Different Auto Increment Question

                                Maybe I misspoke. How about three fields?

                                See the attached example...
                                Peter
                                AlphaBase Solutions, LLC

                                [email protected]
                                https://www.alphabasesolutions.com


                                Comment

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