How do I generate auto increment number in SQL Express?

Hi, in Access, I can use an Auto-Increment number for my primary key field. May I know how do I do that in SQL Express? In addition, is there any tutorial on how to use SQL Express to generate customised unique numbers (such as membership number, Customer ID such as A001 where A is based on the customer's name while 001 is due to the fact that the customer is the first among those with names starting with A)?Thanks a lot.For your first question: In SQL Server, you can use data type int as your identity column and assign this column as indentity field from the property window. It will work like autonumber field in Access.|||

cckiat:

Hi, in Access, I can use an Auto-Increment number for my primary key field. May I know how do I do that in SQL Express? In addition, is there any tutorial on how to use SQL Express to generate customised unique numbers (such as membership number, Customer ID such as A001 where A is based on the customer's name while 001 is due to the fact that the customer is the first among those with names starting with A)? Thanks a lot.

IDENTITY is the auto increament in SQL Server it is a property of the column, the second one you described is a SEQUENCE it is in Oracle not SQL Server but it is similar to IDENTITY. Both are defined by ANSI SQL but Microsoft and Oracle choose to implement one and not the other. But you can use GUID in SQL Server to generate Unique numbers but it is a 16bytes Binary data type so use it with care. Hope this helps.