Autoincrement a field

[Zenon]

Hi,

I would like to have a calculated field (count field) in a table which increments automatically if a user (user field) enters a record. So some sample data might look like the following:

User, count, other stuff

------------------------

JOE, 1, otherStuff

JOE, 2, otherstuff

JOE, 3, otherstuff

SALLY, 1, otherstuff

The next time JOE creates a new record I would like the count to be automatically set to 4. If a new user, FRANK, enters a new record, I would like it to automatically default to 1.

Regards,

Zenon

[bcooney]

What if Joe deletes a record (that he didn't create)? I'm too tired to think of other gotcha's, but I would imagine that your requirement might be solved in a more direct way if we knew why you felt that you needed this incrementing field. Could you elaborate on the business requirement?

[Zenon]

Hi,

The requirement is that each user identifies each record (in our case a slide) with an identifier, unique for the user (the combination of user and count is unique). I can make the "count" field user entry, but it would be better for the user if the field was populated automatically.

I don't really care if a user deletes a record, as long as the "cont" field is unique for the user.

Thanks,

Zenon

[bcooney]

Why? To what purpose must a user identify each record?

My thoughts:

1. You're looking to establish some sort of security model whereby a user is only able to view "his" records.

2. You're tallying the number of records a user has created. By the way, you don't mention a User table or the fact that you might be populating records with an auto-enter gUserID.

3. You aren't aware of auto-enter increment serial numbers.

4. You're merging data from several off-line files.

So, please tell me your goal, because describing a technique in the dark, so to speak, might do you a disservice.

hth,

Barbara

[Zenon]

Sure, I'll try to explain... I'm very new to FM more familiar with other db - trying to learn.

[color:green]My responses are green

1. You're looking to establish some sort of security model whereby a user is only able to view "his" records.

[color:green]Yes, most of the time users only want to view their own records. Occasionally they will need to view all records or a list of records other users records

2. You're tallying the number of records a user has created. By the way, you don't mention a User table or the fact that you might be populating records with an auto-enter gUserID.

[color:green]Yes again, we would be auto-populating the user with the userId.

3. You aren't aware of auto-enter increment serial numbers.

[color:green]Well, I thought that the increments are general and not user specific. Can you create a increment that is user specific( without creating a separate increment for each user). We do want an increment as the primary key, but also want a way to segregate the data by user

4. You're merging data from several off-line files.

[color:green]No, the users are putting in their info manually

Regards,

Zenon

[bcooney]

You really didn't answer my question. Why must you have this user-specific incrementing count?

[Zenon]

Well, I don't really need to have this field auto populated. We could let the users enter in a unique identifier for each user/slide combo. I thought that there may be an easy way to automatically do this as a convienience for the users. If not, we can use the workaround.

Thanks,

Zenon

[bcooney]

I'll stop asking why this is needed since you don't seem to want to explore the goal of this requirement.