auto-enter serial numbers for sets of records?

[doubtfulgood]

New to FM, I have figured out a lot on my own and created functioning solutions for our uses, however I'm frustrated here (may be a very simple step I don't see). Help would be most appreciated!

Need to auto-generate serial ticket numbers for each series (theater). I have a series table and a subscription table in addition to the main contact table. There are about 15 series records. To be consistent with current usage, subscription (ticket) numbers should read "abc05 001", "def05 001", etc with the first set of characters corresponding to the series. I set up a field in "series" named "series_code" for that. Tried using a look-up and a calc but I'm doing something (or many things) wrong.

One other issue is that some subscriptions are for multiple tickets - how best to script (?) for that occurrence? Would a return of "abc05 001, 002" be possible or, somehow, in the same subscription record "abc05 001" "abc05 002" when the number reserved is greater than 1?

Thank you in advance for any helping hints.

[RalphL]

FileMaker doesn't do this but you can create your own serial number generator. Take a look at tech note 104601 in the FileMaker Knowledge Base on the FIlemakr web site. There maybe others.

[RalphL]

Here are 2 more that I found: 104601 & 103588.

[doubtfulgood]

Thank you, Ralph. I will look at those and TRY to figure something out.