Creating Account numbers and such

Does anyone know where I can get some info on creating customer account
numbers, part numbers and such. In other words what the logic is behind
their creation. I am not looking for code, just how they go about it. I
don't want to use something like a phone number or anything else that may
change over time. Any info would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks Matt

re: Creating Account numbers and such

Matt Smolic wrote:[color=blue]
> Does anyone know where I can get some info on creating customer
> account numbers, part numbers and such. In other words what the logic
> is behind their creation. I am not looking for code, just how they go
> about it. I don't want to use something like a phone number or
> anything else that may change over time. Any info would be greatly
> appreciated.
>
> Thanks Matt[/color]

Some companies have "logic" behind them and some don't. Our company's customer
numbers are just plain old 6 digit numbers (no logic) whereas our part numbers
have a format of...

digits-digits-digit

....where the first set of digits identifies the part "family", the second is an
ordinal sequence (1,2,3), and the last digit indicates things like whether the
part is purchased versus fabricated, versus an assembly, etc..

I don't think you will find anything like "the bible of assigning numbers".
Just use whatever works for you.

--
I don't check the Email account attached
to this message. Send instead to...
RBrandt at Hunter dot com

re: Creating Account numbers and such

Matt Smolic wrote:[color=blue]
> Does anyone know where I can get some info on creating customer[/color]
account[color=blue]
> numbers, part numbers and such. In other words what the logic is[/color]
behind[color=blue]
> their creation. I am not looking for code, just how they go about it.[/color]
I[color=blue]
> don't want to use something like a phone number or anything else that[/color]
may[color=blue]
> change over time. Any info would be greatly appreciated.
>
> Thanks Matt[/color]

You will need some incremental counter portion of the number. You can
begin with some type of identifying sequence, such as branch number or
year, and then an incremental sequence to make sure you don't have
duplicates. I have some people who liked specifying the month the
client record was created (format mmy or mmyy) or just the year (yyyy
or yy) or the date (yymmdd). On your counter, make sure you have
enough digits to ensure room for growth. A 5 digit counter will allow
for 100,000 customers where 6 digits will handle 1,000,000 records.
That counter can count up separately for each branch/year/whatever, or
you can use a system-wide pool of numbers.

You do NOT want to use this customer ID as the primary key, since the
customer numbers WILL at some point change. (They will, just count on
it.) Indexed and no duplicates is fine, but the PK should be invisible
to the average user since they always find a "good" reason that a
different number should be assigned.

Part numbers. I would probably want some portion of that number to
reflect the vendor I purchase the parts from, maybe another portion if
you have a department or function that uses the part (exhaust system,
a/c system, general use?) and then some incremental counter. Again,
don't use this part number as the primary key as somebody somewhere
will want to change it.

re: Creating Account numbers and such

Since you can query a table on any column, why use such compound numbers at
all? A simple number will suffice to identify a customer, part, etc.. Use
a compound number to maintain compatability with an existing system, if the
user insists on it, or some other good reason.

This subject is touched on here, which I just happened to be looking at the
other day, although it is concerning a different topic:
http://www.sqlteam.com/item.asp?ItemID=2599

I believe that there are other websites in existence which deal with
normalization and such that might also delve into this concept, but I think
they would generally advise against using compound numbering schemes.

I could see this being an advantage if the identifier were "nemonic" in
nature. For example, you could use a 4-letter code to identify customers,
so DuPont would be DUPO and General Motors would be GEMO or something like
that and the users of the system would get to know the customer codes of
regular customers so they wouldn't have to look them up. But something
along the lines of DUPO12345678 would involve looking up the customer
anyway.

"Matt Smolic" <smolic@emerytelcom.net> wrote in message
news:10t0r4c1sgs7a00@corp.supernews.com...[color=blue]
> Does anyone know where I can get some info on creating customer account
> numbers, part numbers and such. In other words what the logic is behind
> their creation. I am not looking for code, just how they go about it. I
> don't want to use something like a phone number or anything else that may
> change over time. Any info would be greatly appreciated.
>
> Thanks Matt
>
>[/color]