access 2003 - autonum question

[PaulW]

I have a form with the "ID" as an autonum. When the form becomes dirty the autonum field is incremented. If I "UNDO" before finishing the record the autonum is still "used" even though there is no data in the bound table. My user is confused as to where the missing "numbers" are. Can you help?

TIA

[HansV]

An AutoNumber field is a unique but meaningless identifier for a record. AutoNumber fields are used to ensure that each record in a table has a unique identifier; this is very handy for building and maintaining relationships between tables/

Values that have already been assigned but not saved, will not be reused. Neither will AutoNumber values of deleted records be reused. The only exception is when you compact the database - Access should then start at the highest used number plus one. (Gaps in between numbers still won't be reused).

End users shouldn't need to see AutoNumber fields, so gaps in the sequence shouldn't matter. If you really need a sequence number without gaps, you should create another field for it, not of type AutoNumber, and assign its values yourself.

[PaulW]

Hans,

Thanks. I needed something from the guru to satisfy my auditor user. I just did not know about the assigned, but not saved feature.