How to create a serial no

[nashy17]

Hi I am steve. I have a text field which is an id field. I want it to have serial number which is made up of the data from a global field thne i want it to have a number. Then in the next record to increment by one.

I guess it is a calculation but i don't know how to do it. Can anyone help

[Ocean West]

I strongly recommend not using data from a global field to create a serial number...

have you looked at http://www.nightwing.com.au/FileMaker/demos9/demo910.html which is a recommended method for creating unique serial numbers.

It really depends on what you intend to do with the field.

[nashy17]

Thanks for that. The data in the global field will only have one record so i guess it doesn't have to be global.

I have had a look at the website you suggest but haven't found what i am looking for yet. I will keep looking.

[nashy17]

I have a number of copies of this data base with a number of different users. I want to include the code for each user which would be 2 or 3 letters as part of the id for these records that would be imported and then sent out.

If i could use this field it would solve a number of issues.

I looked at the night wing web but didn't undestand how to convert that to what i am doing.

Many thanks

Steve

[Ocean West]

using the custom function to create a Unique ID it doesn't matter who creates a record in any of the databases (islands) if they send you data back the database they all have unique field you could consolidate all the data in to one central database and the data maintains uniqueness. I would include a this field regardless.

If you create a separate unique database for each USER just preface the serial id with a unique digit for that user

1000 = John

2000 = Mary

3000 = Mark

Create a hard coded calculation that concatenates the serial number field and a designator

calc = 10000 & SerialNumber

so records for John would be 10000001, 10000002, 10000003

so records for Mary would be 20000001, 20000002, 20000003

so records for Mark would be 30000001, 30000002, 30000003

[nashy17]

Thanks Stephen

What you say makes sense and to an extent i understand what you are saying.

My problem, as not as proficient programmer as i would like, is that i don't know how t create the things you say.

[Cabinetman]

I think maybe a better explanation would help...

How are the database related?

Where do they get the #'s.. from the main database?

What steps are there in the import/export?

Will these #'s come from a main database?