Record numbers

This may not sound like an informix problem but... I am using ODBC to access the database - currently DBase files on the hard disk but soon to be Informix on an RS6000. The database classes I am using assume that for every record in a table there is a record number which is used in the same way as a key. If I use ODBC to perform different SELECT * ON table ORDER BY keyvaluestatements then instead of the original table's record number I get simply the number which the record appears in the matched record. Did you understand that? no? oh well. Anyway, am I hitting my head against a wall by trying to get record numbers out of a relational database or can I do it somehow by intelligent INDEXing or something. (Incidently you may have noticed that I am faking indexes by ORDER BY clauses. Is there any change in functionality? or does creating indexes simply speed access times...) -- Alex McLintock