How to serialize records...

[mmai]

I am a newbie. In the process of the creating a technical support database. The database assigns serialized case # automatically. However, there are subcases that I want to serialize per the case # only. For example, I have Case # 2001, under this case #, I would like to have subcases like 2001-1, 2000-2, etc. How can I accomplish this?

Anyhelp is greatly appreciated!

[simon1663]

I don't really get you 100%.

You may need a script to do it if you are keeping it in the same database. Or else, keep the subcases in a separate database.

[Vaughan]

I agree with Simon. this sounds like a relational database. The "cases" in the main, "subcases" relational using the case ID as the key.

[Oldsneekers]

What you want to do, if I understand the problem correctly is to interfere with the autoenter feature of record numbering and insert a record number in between the numbers that are being autoentered. I am going to answer this on the fly without testing but I think you can do it by having three record number fields. The first is the true auto entered record number field (AeField); the second is a number or text field that is manually entered. You can use a script to copy the "main" record number, creat a new record and add your "X-1; X-2...suffix" to that record number into this "ManualField" record number field. The third field is a calculation field that is actually displayed and used for the find, sorting etc. The calculation is If(isEmpty(Manualfield)=1, AeField, ManalField), thus if no manual serial number has been entered the Calc field will display the autoentered record number, if on the other hand, the manual field is populated, its value will be displayed. I hope this answers your problem.

[Chuck]

I did something like this some time ago. What I did was create a relationship based on what you call the case number. Then I created another field for your sub-case number. This field was set to auto enter a calculation based on the number of existing related records (using the Count function).

I haven't done it in quite a while, but that should help get you on to the track of one possible solution.

Chuck