Help on generating random numbers

Question

1.00/5 (1 vote)

See more:

Please i need help on trying to generate a random number to use as a unique identifier in sql database.I have a text box on a web application that a user is suppose to enter a username.Lets say a user enters his name as Micheal in this textbox.I want the computer to generate a unique number taking the the first two characters of the name entered in the textbox in this case which is (mi) and concatenate it with the current date and time as one long string.For example if the date is 10/20/2012 and time is 10:56pm i want the unique number to be Mi102020121056.The Mi iscoming from the string entered in the textbox which is micheal.Please help me out i will be very grateful for any help given.

Posted 10-Oct-12 4:58am

jamiebones

Add a Solution

Comments

joshrduncan2012 10-Oct-12 11:07am

Can you please show us where you are stuck by providing the code you have so far and what kinds of output/error messages you are receiving?

fjdiewornncalwe 10-Oct-12 11:09am

But what happens when two people submit with the same timestamp and just happen to have the same first two letters. You'll end up with a key constraint violation. Don't try to be too cute with your primary keys. In this case, I would use a normal identity auto-increment primary key field, but then just use a secondary id indexed field of your generated userid if you wish.

[no name] 10-Oct-12 11:12am

Right +5

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 10-Oct-12 12:21pm

Right. Any play with primary keys could be a problem like the one you describe. Perhaps OP does not really understand how keys work in RDBMSs.
--SA

jamiebones 10-Oct-12 13:42pm

I do I go about what you mentioned.Can you provide me with some sample code.I forgot to mention in my post that I am a novice.Any help is highly appreciated

1 solution

Add a Solution

Add your solution here

Treat my content as plain text, not as HTML

Preview 0

…

Existing Members

Sign in to your account

...or Join us

Download, Vote, Comment, Publish.

Your Email
Password
Forgot your password?

Your Email
This email is in use. Do you need your password?
Optional Password

I have read and agree to the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy
Please subscribe me to the CodeProject newsletters

When answering a question please:

Read the question carefully.
Understand that English isn't everyone's first language so be lenient of bad spelling and grammar.
If a question is poorly phrased then either ask for clarification, ignore it, or edit the question and fix the problem. Insults are not welcome.
Don't tell someone to read the manual. Chances are they have and don't get it. Provide an answer or move on to the next question.

Let's work to help developers, not make them feel stupid.

This content, along with any associated source code and files, is licensed under The Code Project Open License (CPOL)

Arunprasath Natarajan · Answer 1 · 2012-10-10T05:57:00

Solution 1

You can modify your code as per result retrieve from Select NewID()
It will give Unique ID

More About NewID()[^]

Posted 10-Oct-12 5:57am

Arunprasath Natarajan

Updated 10-Oct-12 5:58am

v2