It think it is necessary, from my POV, please correct me if I am thinking wrong. The numbers are for batch no. of pharmacy products and numbering is restarted every financial year and because they are used on consumer readable labels I need them as integers. The generated numbers look like this finally ITM001-505-09/10 where ITM001 is the product code, 505 the generator number and 09/10 the financial year.

Thanks and regards
Bhavbhuti

--- In firebird-support@yahoogroups.com, "zvjezdantomicevic" <zvjezdantomicevic@...> wrote:
>
> Well, this usage of generators is a bit uncommon, and may not be a sound design.
> Philippe suggested that you use globaly unique identifiers (GUID) instead of integers.
> They sound like good solution in this case, unless it is absolutely essential to use integers and restart them every year.
>
> --- In firebird-support@yahoogroups.com, Bhavbhuti Nathwani <venussoftop@> wrote:
> >
> > Thanks Philippe, but I am sorry I did not understand what you mean to say I
> > do.
> >
> > Kind regards
> > Bhavbhuti
> >
> >
> > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
> >
>