Is Access's AutoNumber (Increment) guaranteed to increment?

ms-access auto-increment autonumber
Smashery picture Smashery · Apr 20, 2009 · Viewed 11.8k times · Source

For a particular table, I have my ID field set to AutoNumber (Increment). If I add 5 rows to this table in quick succession, is each guaranteed to have a larger ID than the last? For instance, does autonumbering ever restart from 1 if some earlier values have been deleted?

Answer

dsteele picture dsteele · Apr 20, 2009

The only time I have ever had trouble with Access autonumbers is when, in error, I set the value of an autonumber key field to a number lower than the current maximum using an append query. Gaps had been created in the numbering by record deletions. Access allows you to force a value into an autonumber field, and sometimes (not always, and I don't know why) the autonumbering gets reset to the lower number. Eventually, as records were added, I ran into 'duplicate key' errors. Other than this, I've never had trouble in many years.

There are a couple of answers to this question which talk about an increment value. As far as I know, an Access autonumber field can only be set to 'Increment' (by 1) or 'Random', and there is no way of setting a numeric increment other than 1. If I am wrong about this, please enlighten me.

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