"Allen Browne" wrote in
:

Random autonumbers are useful if you need to replicate.

I can't say that I'd recommend that anyone choose random
Autonumbers. Replication *forces* you to use them, and in that
context it's fine.

One scenario where it might be valuable is if you want to spread new
records out across many data pages. Since Jet/ACE tables are stored
in PK order (clustered), sequential Autonumbers will place all the
recent records in the last data pages, whereas a random Autonumber
will distribute them evenly through all the data pages.

However, you don't really get the benefit of that until after a
compact, because it's only after a compact that the whole table is
re-written in PK order.

I've contemplated trying it, but have never had an app where there
was enough contention for data pages for it to matter.

--
David W. Fenton http://www.dfenton.com/
usenet at dfenton dot com http://www.dfenton.com/DFA/