Autonumber/Linking table

Question

I have three tables (FamilyInfo, FamilyMemberInfo, and PhoneInfo). In each of these tables I used autonumber as the primary key. Then I tried to make a linking table with the 3 primary keys from those tables with each primary key as autonumber. I got the message that a table can only have one auto number field. I thought that the fields in the linking table had to be of the same domain as the foreign key in the referenced table. So does that mean that I have to make the ID fields in the main tables as text?

Answer 1

"Serendipityww" wrote in message

news:*** Email address is removed for privacy ***...

>I have three tables (FamilyInfo, FamilyMemberInfo, and PhoneInfo). In each

>of these tables I used autonumber as the primary key. Then I tried to make

>a linking table with the 3 primary keys from those tables with each primary

>key as autonumber. I got the message that a table can only have one auto

>number field. I thought that the fields in the linking table had to be of

>the same domain as the foreign key in the referenced table. So does that

>mean that I have to make the ID fields in the main tables as text?

..

An autonumber is really Long Integer with other special attributes.  In your

linking table, you won't be auto-incrementing the foreign key values from

the other tables, so those foreign key fields should be defined as Long

Integer.

When you do that, by the way, make sure those fields in the linking tale

don't have their Default Value properties set to 0.  They should have no

default values.

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Dirk Goldgar, MS Access MVP

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