RE: Serial Column (workaround found)

Yes, SERIAL can be use (as an input field) in a lookup form (i assume that you meant a form generated using the ISQL;Form;Generate function). However, my intention is to allow the user to key in a value in the SERIAL feild (during INPUT) so that they can UPDATE the record. Instead of keying in multiple keys, the user could just enter the value of that SERIAL field (since the SERIAL value is unique). Initial insertion of the record was done somewhere. Anyway, I have found my work-around of using a declared variable of an INTEGER type instead of using SERIAL type in the program. Example shown below: ---------------- table1 field_1 SERIAL, field_2 CHAR(10), field_3 CHAR(4), field_4 ...... ----------------- MAIN ... DEFINE var1 INTEGER DEFINE t_table1 RECORD LIKE table1.* INPUT BY NAME var1 AFTER FIELD var1 ... some statement SELECT * INTO t_table1.* FROM table1 WHERE field_1 = var1 IF status = 0 THEN UPDATE table1 SET table1.* = t_table1 WHERE field_1 = var1 END IF ------------------- Thanks for responding. Richard --- Robert Stuart <Robert.Stuart@NFER-NELSON.co.uk> wrote: > Yes - I didn't know there was any doubt about it - > the old form4gl program > places ALL fields into forms. > > Are you using the serial as a lookup in your form? > Or as data creation? > > If you are only looking up data then it's great. > If you are creating data by overriding serial then - > why use serial? > > In general, I do not publish serial to end users, > simply use serials as > [part of] a primary key. > > -----Original Message----- > From: R WS [mailto:bquop@yahoo.com] > Sent: 12 January 2001 01:08 > To: informix-list@iiug.org > Subject: Serial Column > > > Dear All, > > Can a column with SERIAL data type be used in a form > as an INPUT field ? > > Thanks in advance. > > > __________________________________________________ > Do You Yahoo!? > Yahoo! Photos - Share your holiday photos online! > http://photos.yahoo.com/ __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get email at your own domain with Yahoo! Mail. http://personal.mail.yahoo.com/