The Rank Order query was worth seeing. I do have a rank order but it can't be set by a query as it's conditional on too many things (values in other fields in that record). Then it's possible that results in no rank, so a different assessment is done, and finally is still no rank established, it's an alpha sort within that group.
There's a class module that looks at each record and the one after it, and returns true if all these factors result in this record being less than the next record.
That's how I know they're right or wrong. If right the number field I was asking about updating should be sequential with no duplicates or skips. If it's not I update it. Although what DB guy said still worries me, am I missing something? But everything seems to work as intended.
An update query might be more efficient than moving through a recordset and reapplying the numbers as I've been doing.
Say I have an ordered Select Query, can I convert that to an Update and have it number a field from xx to xx+ its count? (xx will not always be 1.)
This field is also a helper if anything is moved, deleted or added.