>>George,
>>
>>Except for using a key table that tracks the last used key and generates the next one.
>
>Hi Jim,
>
>That's why I included the word "independently" in my post. I meant to exclude external references such as a key table. Having a key table, and the mechanisms to properly increment the value, are really (in IMHO) the proper way to do this.

George,

I know you knew this, I was just trying to repeat it again in the thread. It is interesting that in the time we have spent discussing this situation we probably could have written two or three key table generation schemes :-).