>>I have an inventory type table and when I enter a new part, I want VFP to automatically assign a unique part number to it. I know it can be done, is there an easy way. thanks for the help.
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>Unique IDs are usually controls from a meta table like TABLE.DBF which holds the last unique id used to create a record in each table. This is also used for a locking mecanism.

If the field has a primary or candidate index, VFP will automatically make sure no duplicates can be entered into the field. See discussions in the past on primary keys for more help.