Alpha Software Mobile Development Tools:   Alpha Anywhere    |   Alpha TransForm subscribe to our YouTube Channel  Follow Us on LinkedIn  Follow Us on Twitter  Follow Us on Facebook

Announcement

Collapse

The Alpha Software Forum Participation Guidelines

The Alpha Software Forum is a free forum created for Alpha Software Developer Community to ask for help, exchange ideas, and share solutions. Alpha Software strives to create an environment where all members of the community can feel safe to participate. In order to ensure the Alpha Software Forum is a place where all feel welcome, forum participants are expected to behave as follows:
  • Be professional in your conduct
  • Be kind to others
  • Be constructive when giving feedback
  • Be open to new ideas and suggestions
  • Stay on topic


Be sure all comments and threads you post are respectful. Posts that contain any of the following content will be considered a violation of your agreement as a member of the Alpha Software Forum Community and will be moderated:
  • Spam.
  • Vulgar language.
  • Quotes from private conversations without permission, including pricing and other sales related discussions.
  • Personal attacks, insults, or subtle put-downs.
  • Harassment, bullying, threatening, mocking, shaming, or deriding anyone.
  • Sexist, racist, homophobic, transphobic, ableist, or otherwise discriminatory jokes and language.
  • Sexually explicit or violent material, links, or language.
  • Pirated, hacked, or copyright-infringing material.
  • Encouraging of others to engage in the above behaviors.


If a thread or post is found to contain any of the content outlined above, a moderator may choose to take one of the following actions:
  • Remove the Post or Thread - the content is removed from the forum.
  • Place the User in Moderation - all posts and new threads must be approved by a moderator before they are posted.
  • Temporarily Ban the User - user is banned from forum for a period of time.
  • Permanently Ban the User - user is permanently banned from the forum.


Moderators may also rename posts and threads if they are too generic or do not property reflect the content.

Moderators may move threads if they have been posted in the incorrect forum.

Threads/Posts questioning specific moderator decisions or actions (such as "why was a user banned?") are not allowed and will be removed.

The owners of Alpha Software Corporation (Forum Owner) reserve the right to remove, edit, move, or close any thread for any reason; or ban any forum member without notice, reason, or explanation.

Community members are encouraged to click the "Report Post" icon in the lower left of a given post if they feel the post is in violation of the rules. This will alert the Moderators to take a look.

Alpha Software Corporation may amend the guidelines from time to time and may also vary the procedures it sets out where appropriate in a particular case. Your agreement to comply with the guidelines will be deemed agreement to any changes to it.



Bonus TIPS for Successful Posting

Try a Search First
It is highly recommended that a Search be done on your topic before posting, as many questions have been answered in prior posts. As with any search engine, the shorter the search term, the more "hits" will be returned, but the more specific the search term is, the greater the relevance of those "hits". Searching for "table" might well return every message on the board while "tablesum" would greatly restrict the number of messages returned.

When you do post
First, make sure you are posting your question in the correct forum. For example, if you post an issue regarding Desktop applications on the Mobile & Browser Applications board , not only will your question not be seen by the appropriate audience, it may also be removed or relocated.

The more detail you provide about your problem or question, the more likely someone is to understand your request and be able to help. A sample database with a minimum of records (and its support files, zipped together) will make it much easier to diagnose issues with your application. Screen shots of error messages are especially helpful.

When explaining how to reproduce your problem, please be as detailed as possible. Describe every step, click-by-click and keypress-by-keypress. Otherwise when others try to duplicate your problem, they may do something slightly different and end up with different results.

A note about attachments
You may only attach one file to each message. Attachment file size is limited to 2MB. If you need to include several files, you may do so by zipping them into a single archive.

If you forgot to attach your files to your post, please do NOT create a new thread. Instead, reply to your original message and attach the file there.

When attaching screen shots, it is best to attach an image file (.BMP, .JPG, .GIF, .PNG, etc.) or a zip file of several images, as opposed to a Word document containing the screen shots. Because Word documents are prone to viruses, many message board users will not open your Word file, therefore limiting their ability to help you.

Similarly, if you are uploading a zipped archive, you should simply create a .ZIP file and not a self-extracting .EXE as many users will not run your EXE file.
See more
See less

Random # generator in field rules or a button?

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

    Random # generator in field rules or a button?

    I have followed/copied a couple of examples of random number generators that I have found while searching through the forum but could not find anything that would work properly for my situation even though it is a very simple situation, I think.

    When I enter a new record (customer) I would like a random string generated in each of two fields that would not later change for that record, at least not automatically. The only formula I found that would work kept changing whenever I opened the record again.

    One I tried, its limitation was it was date based, I believe, and then the second record I tried it in a few minutes later gave me the same unique number.

    And, I would like numbers, letters upper case and lower case, ala, tQvRqO8. I'm current using 7 digit unique numbers copied manually from RoboForm but I can see an advantage in a span of 5 to 8 digits, or something along those lines.

    I believe it is not possible to tie something like this to a field rule preventing duplicates but I gather the odds are really stacked against this actually happening.

    Anyone know how best to approach this?

    #2
    Re: Random # generator in field rules or a button?

    Hi Jim,
    I'm having a hard time thinking of a way that has not already been covered in the forums.....do you actually need it to be random or is it the uniqueness that you want? BTW, instead of using date() use the time function now() to create an easy unique number---well, possible to have a duplicate but if something else from the record is added as well the chances really get slim...and could check for if it exists before saving and either manually or with code keep adding to it until it is.

    There is also a function that will generate a unique ID but believe it is a 32 character result.

    Let us know more specifics....and also tell us exactly why the several ways mentioned in previous posts will not work for your situation--check out the preselected "Similar Threads" area at the bottom of this thread before doing additional searching as I believe your answer may very well be in one of them.
    Mike
    __________________________________________
    It is only when we forget all our learning that we begin to know.
    It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see.
    Henry David Thoreau
    __________________________________________



    Comment


      #3
      Re: Random # generator in field rules or a button?

      I will have to get back to this later but to answer your easiest question uniqueness is the goal. Doesn't have to be random at all, once I think about it. It's all about being unique and a combination of alpha numeric.
      If nothing else then, thanks for helping me to clarify the problem better.

      Comment


        #4
        Re: Random # generator in field rules or a button?

        In the interim you may want to check out the various threads regarding the creation of your own auto-increment as it sounds like you need 2 unique IDs created which, for one table, the Alpha auto-increment in field rules may not do it for you (never even considered trying it though to see if 2 fields in the same table could be an auto-incremented though). Creating your own auto-increment has definitely been covered many times here so it should not be difficult to find several threads on it. If you can't find any that are applicable let us know and maybe link to one that is closest to what is required so that we have something to base our guess on!.
        Mike
        __________________________________________
        It is only when we forget all our learning that we begin to know.
        It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see.
        Henry David Thoreau
        __________________________________________



        Comment


          #5
          Re: Random # generator in field rules or a button?

          Jim

          It would be easier to prescribe a solution if you would describe what your application is trying to accomplish with the field(s).
          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


            #6
            Re: Random # generator in field rules or a button?

            The very short explanation: I do some article marketing via two routes. One or the other code is placed in an article submission which later makes it easy to track through a search engine where the article has actually been published.

            Comment


              #7
              Re: Random # generator in field rules or a button?

              So make each field a character type and autoincrement and use the default value to 'seed' each field with a value that won't overlap over the life of your data.
              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


                #8
                Re: Random # generator in field rules or a button?

                And what formula do I insert in order to get my mix of alpha lower/upper case and numeric? Or where do I find the instructions will be appreciated.

                Up to today I had been focused on a formula for totally random numbers but I realize now that I don't need that piece and will be starting over looking for the simpler answer that I can now work with.

                Thanks, guys.

                Comment


                  #9
                  Re: Random # generator in field rules or a button?

                  Originally posted by JimGatton View Post
                  And what formula do I insert in order to get my mix of alpha lower/upper case and numeric? Or where do I find the instructions will be appreciated.

                  Up to today I had been focused on a formula for totally random numbers but I realize now that I don't need that piece and will be starting over looking for the simpler answer that I can now work with.

                  Thanks, guys.
                  http://www.alphafivewiki.com/How%20A...0Fields%20Work
                  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

                  Working...
                  X