membership number creation

Hi Jason,

I have a membership form and I am wanting a unique number created automatically for each record which will be the users membership number. I am testing this with 'security assists' 'random password' with a numbers only 6 digit format. Can you tell me if these numbers will always be unique? Subsequently is this a good way of automatically creating a membership number for the user or is there better way of doing this?

Thanks in advance!

using a random number generator, there is a possibility that it could generate the same number twice, although it is a slim possibility. To prevent this from happening, you could set the member number in the database to not allow duplicates, you could also use Server Validation Unique Database Value on that column, that will look up the random number to ensure it has not been used and fail validation on the off chance it already exists.

using the random number generator will be fine, just use the Unique DB value also.

another option would be to use the Primary ID Auto Increment column for the member number, the downfall there, is that each one will increment by 1, but it will always be unique.

With regard to the using the primary ID. I suppose I could for example start the AUTO_INCREMENT at, for example, 100000 if I wanted a 6 digit number. the increment by 1 is not ideal but would work, until 999999 that is!

If I use the random number generator with Server Validation Unique Database Value. What will happen if the Validation fails? Will it automatically create another number?

Thanks in Advance Jason!

YEs, you can start the auto increment at 100000

  the increment by 1 is not ideal but would work, until 999999 that is!  

if you are going to use a 6 digit number, you are limited to 100000 - 999999 whether you auto increment or randomly generate.

Using the unique database validation, the registration would fail, you could set it to show a message to retry the registration which would generate a new number.