Problems with getting the next number

TO Bob at EZ Travel.... Yes that has been a problem, but as I explained earlier, we have had problems with the type of work we are doing with serial numbers. We have tried several ways of doing this. In one database we used time and the system was so heavily used that we created a unique number, add time to it and then wrote the record making it an character field instead. In another instance we do not read the next nbr until we read, increment then write at the point of the escape with error routines to make sure that the write occurred. Guess when I write back to the list, I just show my ignorance, but some of the things we are doing, I believe, require that we have a next number table. These are controled by permissions, and groups that can only access certain numbers, etc. I do not see how a serial number could do the thing with "E12345" + 4_digit_julian + sequential_number as a character field. This is only 1 of the ways we are using next number tables. Cheryl