Hello Pat,
We implemented a single table count method last year, but have since decided on another schema. For exactly the reasons you stated no way to reconstruct a concatenated key. Our (hopefully) final scheme will be to store the autonumber and local code in every record. Next a function will create a concatenated primary text key prior to updating the record.
This is an example of our new textural primary keys.
00010001000000000016
That will probably hold up for a few days of production data entry.
SOS,
You could fill a large granite mine with the things I don’t understand, but math is not one of them. As far as probability is concerned, there is no accounting for cluster theory, yet it does exist. Maybe it’s a force at the center of the energy of the Universe, maybe it’s an anomaly in a set of electrons; I don’t know. But I do know this; if you build an algorithm that must create unique numbers, it’s infinitely more dependable than one that creates probabilities.