Reset Serial Number?

[MartinGibbs]

Greetings. I have an FM database with about 1400 records in it, but my I have a field reqNum (request Number) that is 1500 or so, due to record deletions (some users can delete bogus requests). The 'reqNum' field is a Serial number and I want it to reflect the current count.

In MS Access, you can compact your AutoNumbers so they all go in order.

Can one do this in FileMaker? Go through each record and reset reqNum back, so that each record is in numerical order?

[Lee Smith]

What differences does break in numbers make? After all, they are only numbers.

You can "Replace" your serial numbers using the Menu - Records - Replace. But, I can not think a valid reason to do so. However, I can think a few valid reason *not* to do so.

If you insist on proceeding however, test what you are doing on a copy of your database, *not* the original or only copy.

Lee

[DanBrill]

I agree with Lee -- don't change serial numbers. The point of a serial ID number is that it is at least the one field in a record that won't change. Ever. It will always be the 'key' field, to use Access verbage. If you want something that reflects the current count, then use status(CurrentRecordCount) fur tne number of records in the file, or status(CurrentFoundCount) that shows how many are in the current found set.

Dan