Hey everyone...

as always, i'm completely thankful for everything you guys have already done for me, and all the other beginners out there. you guys are awesome.

so here's my issue...

I need to generate an id number based off of several fields. the code would be the first letter of the first name, the first letter of the last name. the date of birth. and male or female. i have fields for all of them. but need to pull only certain letters from each. and put them all into one 'calculation field.'

ex. Steve Guttenberg 08-02-70 Male = SG08021970m

any direction would be greatly appreciated.

thanks again.

Upper(Left( NameFirst; 1 ) & Left( NameLast; 1 )) & Right( "0" & Month(DOB); 2 ) & Right( "0" & Day(DOB); 2 ) & Year(DOB) & Left( Gender; 1 )

you're awesome. worked like a charm.

Something to consider also...

Unless you don't need the ID to be unique, you may encounter a problem with someone with the same first letter in their first and last name, date of birth and gender. While this may be rare, the larger your database becomes, eventually you may have a record that would generate a duplicate ID.

My company designs databases for entertainment companies and provide talent data, but because we don't want to take the chance that a Steve Guttenberg may have the same birthday as a Stephen Gaghan, a Scott Glenn, or a Sacha Gervasi, we assign a simple sequential ID.

you're absolutely right. for this case though, the ID's are just for the people to look at (instead of real names), there is also a real unique ID number for reference. Plus, this database will max out at about 200 people...

thanks again for the input. you guys are rule.