(Q) In a table I'm using an Autonumber Field as the primary ID. But if
the user creates a new record and closes the form without saving it, the
Autonumber field still increases by one. This creates gaps in the continuity of
the primary key field. How can I:
(a) stop the Autonumber incrementing itself if the record wasn't
created; and
(b) force a renumber of this field to occupy contiguous numbers if I was
delete record(s) from the table?
(A) There is no such thing as a record number in Access.
Records just "are" - a table is a big, unsequenced bucket. Indexes and
queries provide order to the records in the bucket.
Autonumber is simply a way to create a unique identifier for each record.
It should NEVER be treated as a meaningful piece of data.
If you need a meaningful sequencer (like to assign user numbers), you
have to create it and manipulate it yourself. You will need to stop using
Autonumber, and create a sequence number that you increment yourself and
apply to the record when it is saved.
You can also capture the numbers from deleted records and re-use them.
If, however, you have the possibility of related records using the number as
a foreign key - do not reuse old numbers.
Now, for your db to "work" primary keys do not need to be continuous
numbers; they just need to be unique - which is why the Autonumber function
works like it does.
