Nancy,

Maybe you can pre-generate those numbers in advance, store in a table and use as needed?

>I need to generate 7-digit, unique, random numeric quasi-serial number. I'll generate these serial numbers (SN) within a buffered transaction that may or may not be finalized. So, the SN generated won't be written to disk right away. Therefore, I can't use the usual primary key routine most of use. I want to find an efficient system that won't add any (!) processing time to the transaction overall.
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>I can keep a table of just serial numbers generated and not reuse any that are in that table. However, it's possible that a number will be generated but not used.
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>I could, when I finalize the transaction, delete the unused SN record.
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>These sorts of transactions aren't frequent, but I'd like to be as efficient as possible. Plus, I was just sort of interested in the complexity using randomly generated numbers in addition to generating them in buffered transactions adds to using the usual PK routines.
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>TIA for any thoughts.