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(Q) In a table I'm using an Autonumber Field as the primary ID.
But if the user creates a new record and closes the form without saving it,
the Autonumber field still increases by one. This creates gaps in the continuity of the
primary key field. How can I:
(a) stop the Autonumber incrementing itself if the record wasn't created; and
(b) force a renumber of this field to occupy contiguous numbers if I was delete
record(s) from the table?
(A) There is no such thing as a record number in Access.
Records just "are" - a table is a big, unsequenced bucket. Indexes and
queries provide order to the records in the bucket.
Autonumber is simply a way to create a unique identifier for each record. It should
NEVER be treated as a meaningful piece of data.
If you need a meaningful sequencer (like to assign user numbers), you have to create it
and manipulate it yourself. You will need to stop using Autonumber, and create a sequence
number that you increment yourself and apply to the record when it is saved.
You can also capture the numbers from deleted records and re-use them. If,
however, you have the possibility of related records using the number as a foreign key -
do not reuse old numbers.
Now, for your db to "work" primary keys do not need to be continuous numbers;
they just need to be unique - which is why the Autonumber function works like it does.
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