Question

Incrementing custom IDs ( this is very urgent)

Asked by: janithaj

I have a table with an ID as a Primary Key.  an example if thess IDs are

Id001
Id002
Id003
..
.
..
and so on

How do i get the database to increment this value automatically when i add data to the other fields in the database


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Asked On
2003-04-10 at 23:00:36ID20581923
Tags

id001

,

key

,

primary

,

incrementing

Topic

MS SQL Server

Participating Experts
5
Points
20
Comments
9

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Answers

 

by: chaos_hooiPosted on 2003-04-10 at 23:53:22ID: 8312000

Why didn't you use numbers and make the [ID] Column IDENTITY with 1 increment at the beginning?

Then, when you make queries from that tables, you can concatenate it with 'id' and 0(s) in front... It will make life easier...  

Other than that, the only other thing I can think of is to use insert trigger... Maybe other people has better suggestions. ^_^

 

by: janithajPosted on 2003-04-11 at 00:59:49ID: 8312271

Inside the database table it should be stored as

ID001
ID002
ID003
ID004

the identity thing only works in int, we are looking at varchar here

 

by: setiawanPosted on 2003-04-11 at 01:45:17ID: 8312368

the best way is identity column as suggested by chaos_hooi
another solution:
you create a store procedure for insert.
e.g.
create procedure xyz
@param1,
.
.
@paramn
as
declare @nextid integer
select @nextid = convert(int,right(max(id),3)) +1 from table
insert into table values (@nextid, param1, ... , paramn)


note: you have to make sure that your max id is ID999
if you need bigger size, then you have to prepare from now on. e.g. ID99999

stored procedure will guarantee the id to be unique.

 

by: ScottPletcherPosted on 2003-04-11 at 07:40:47ID: 8313434

janithaj,

Please be aware that data does not have to be physically stored the way it is displayed.  For example, if you create a genuine integer identity column, you can also create a computed (virtual) column to return the id in the format you want for display, for example:

CREATE TABLE tablex
    (idNum INT IDENTITY(1,1),
     id AS 'ID' + RIGHT('00'+CAST(idNum AS VARCHAR(3)), 3), ...


Then you can reference id in a SELECT, and you will get 'ID001', 'ID002', etc., even though you only have to store 1, 2, etc..

 

by: ScottPletcherPosted on 2003-04-11 at 07:48:33ID: 8313463

This provides one other advantage: if you later need a fourth digit, you can issue these commands:


ALTER TABLE tablex
    DROP COLUMN id
ALTER TABLE tablex
    ADD id AS 'ID' + RIGHT('000'+CAST(idNum AS VARCHAR(4)), 4)


and id will be changed everywhere to 'ID0001' rather than 'ID001' (provided, of course, you left enough extra space in the display field when needed).

 

by: malekamPosted on 2003-04-11 at 12:40:28ID: 8315425

You can use a trigger as follows:
(NOTE:  my_table AND my_fld ARE YOUR TABLES AND FIELDS,
 the table 'inserted' is a special table used by MS SQL for triggers.)

CREATE TRIGGER InsteadTrigger ON my_table
INSTEAD OF INSERT
AS
BEGIN
   INSERT INTO my_table ([ID], my_fld_one, my_fld_two, my_fld_thr)
   SELECT 'db' +
     CASE LEN(convert(VARCHAR(3),RIGHT([ID], 3) + 1))
      WHEN 1 THEN '00' + convert(VARCHAR(3),RIGHT([ID], 3) + 1)
      WHEN 2 THEN '0' + convert(VARCHAR(3),RIGHT([ID], 3) + 1)
      ELSE convert(VARCHAR(3),RIGHT([ID], 3) + 1)
     END AS [ID] FROM my_table ), I.my_fld_one, my_fld_two, my_fld_thr
   FROM Inserted as I
END


Good luck

 

by: CleanupPingPosted on 2003-09-03 at 05:05:37ID: 9275095

janithaj:
This old question needs to be finalized -- accept an answer, split points, or get a refund.  For information on your options, please click here-> http:/help/closing.jsp#1
EXPERTS:
Post your closing recommendations!  No comment means you don't care.

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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