Re: schema design question

In article <2eb24q$6vr@darkstar.UCSC.EDU> ericd@cats.ucsc.edu (Eric D Davis) writes: [...] >The way it was done before was to issue each new record >an informix serial number, and hand-issue the membership >numbers when needed. Unfortunately (actually, it's >fortunately), the number of members is increasing rapidly >and we want to issue their numbers serially. > >I'm sure someone has solved this problem already. >Anybody want to share? Anything wrong with letting the individual serial # become the membership #? Use the existing membership # field, auto-assign the membership # when/if someone becomes a member, and the membership # field preserves the existing membership #'s that don't match. The only problem with this is you don't want any serial number of a non-member to match with an existing membership number. This should not be too hard to arrange. -- ========================================================================== That which is necessary is never evil. If an evil seems necessary, look to your context; that's where its root lies.