Resetting Filemakers Auto Enter Serial

[tmas73]

I'm looking for a solution where I can reset manualy the Auto Enter Serial in a Field. Is there any way of resiting the Serial??

Thanks

[Lee Smith]

Be sure that you cursor is in the serial number field, and then go to the Menu - Records - Replace.

However, for the life of me I can never figure out why anyone would want to do this. But I guess others know more than I do because, the question comes up all of the time. To me, it isn't worth the possible grief it may cause me, just to make the serial numbers look like they are sequential.

LEE

[LaRetta]

Hi tmas73,

You can reset an auto-enter serial number value by using a script step Set Next Serial Value. It is usually used when importing. You haven't said what you are using it for, so I won't go into an explanation you may not need.

I made the mistake once of making design changes on a copy of my 'real' db. Then I deleted all the records from the copy and imported from the 'real' db. I knew to also import the SNs and NOT click 'Perform auto-enter options, serial number, etc' but I forgot that the serial number field maintained the old serial number of 1206 in the auto-enter section. Users had added 51 records to the 'real' db. So when I imported into the updated db - and began adding new records, FM (of course) used the last serial number listed in auto-enter - which was 1206. I ended up with 51 duplicate serial numbers. A very hard lesson indeed.

Set Next Serial Value is used after an import script to re-set the next sn value - script being something like: Sort ascending by serial number. Go to last record. Set Next Serial Value [serialField, +1].

Now I know to reset the sn.

Of course, you can also go to Define Fields, and change the auto-enter sn there, but if you forget and perform that import ... well, now you know the rest of the story.

LaRetta

[Anatoli]

IMHO -- it only makes sense after some db update and import of records from "live" file.

Then the

Sort ascending by serial number. Go to last record. Set Next Serial Value [serialField, +1].

posted by LaRetta is best procedure.

As Lee mentioned -- it shouldn't be used unwisely.