I suggest you use a DateTime field type, it's only 8 byte. To update, you use the Datetime() function which has a resolution of 1 second.

>I want to create a unique record key that is based on timestamp. So when I sort the records on this key, they are sorted in datetime order.
>
>Any ideas how to create this unique key? Would like it to not be a date field, and to be as precise as possible, and as short in length as possible.
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>Realize that I will have to check for duplicate key prior to inserting a new record as that two records quickly inserted might get a duplicate key.
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>vfp 6.0.
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>Thanks
>
>Brenda