There is nothing wrong with autonumbers, even in more advanced dbs dbas
create a form of autonumber (they call it differently but it serves the same
purpose).

The problem is that many people mistakenly try to rely on autonumbers as,
for instance, a document number. It is merely a unique id associated to a
record. In reality it should serve no other purpose. The end user should
even be aware of autonumber. If you need to number your records and display
it to the user, ie a sequential number associated to a document, then create
a custom field in your table for this distinct purpose.

Short answer, there is nothing wrong with autonumber, but rather the way
some people mistakenly try an use them.

Don't worry!
--
Hope this helps,

Daniel Pineault
http://www.cardaconsultants.com/
For Access Tips and Examples: http://www.devhut.net
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"Barry A&P" wrote:

I recently viewed a post that said "autonumber is fine as long as you dont
display it to the user..." Everything in my database references
autonumbers!! did i make a big mistake somewhere?? i am even marking parts
with ID numbers that are generated by the autonumber field on a few of my
tables...

Should i be worried??

Do i need to seriously look into a new approach??

any comments are greatly appreciated..

Barry