>>Help. I am fairly new to VFP so I'm having trouble figuring out how to do some things. I have a table where JOB_NO is a field and primary key.
>>
>>On a form, when a user enters a job_no, I want it to check then whether this is a new job no.
>>
>>My thinking is this should be done in the Valid of the table for job_no. I just don't know how to check to see if its a unique number without moving the record pointer which causes a recursive error.
>>
>>I cannot generate the job_no on the form or with the default value because it is keyed from a hard copy, and I don't know what the next value will be.
>>
>>Any help/suggestions is greatly appreciated
>>
>>Phil
>
>lcAlias = alias()
>select jobno from mytable where mytable.jobno = this.value into cursor temp
>if _tally > 1 && another record w/ number
> =messagebox('This number already used')
>endif
>use in temp
>select &lcAlias


also -- it's better to a) automate the job number or b) check it before adding a record to the table...