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RI and haracters
- Thread starter foxrainer
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- #4
Thank you both for the quick answers!
In terms of missing SSN's - I am building in a screen for that purpose - Either enter SSN, or, if none avaliable, 'Click here' and code will generate a 9 digit number, random, then convert to CHR,
thank you again
Rainer
In terms of missing SSN's - I am building in a screen for that purpose - Either enter SSN, or, if none avaliable, 'Click here' and code will generate a 9 digit number, random, then convert to CHR,
thank you again
Rainer
Having worked for a state Treasury department, SSNos are notorious for duplicates - it's not a good 'candidate' for a Primary Key. We had to deal with thousands of 999-99-9999's, 123-45-6789's and 987-65-4321's. Legally, only the IRS and the Social Security Office can require you to provide a valid SSNO - everyone else must be satisfied with an ID that may or may not match your Federally provided SSNO - you just need to be consistent. Of course if you don't provide the 'right' one you may never receive your SS benefits, but many believe this to be a "given" anyway.
Rick
Rick
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- #6
Point well taken!
This program is a medically oriented program for a NFP agency. I selected SSN to be used to decrease the chance of duplicate entry of patients (now called consumers).
I've written a program for them in the 2.6 dyas, used a system generated number as the Relation Index.
However, law and behold, even with checking for existing names and existing numbers, users would input several consumers, such as "John Doe", "Joohn Doe", "Johnny Doeo", you get the point.
Is there a failsave scheme? How about making the following required entry fields: Name, SSN, DOB? Then, I could check for any/ all, and if exists, give a "Consumers w/ same DOB exist, are they the same?"
What do you guys think?
Rainer
This program is a medically oriented program for a NFP agency. I selected SSN to be used to decrease the chance of duplicate entry of patients (now called consumers).
I've written a program for them in the 2.6 dyas, used a system generated number as the Relation Index.
However, law and behold, even with checking for existing names and existing numbers, users would input several consumers, such as "John Doe", "Joohn Doe", "Johnny Doeo", you get the point.
Is there a failsave scheme? How about making the following required entry fields: Name, SSN, DOB? Then, I could check for any/ all, and if exists, give a "Consumers w/ same DOB exist, are they the same?"
What do you guys think?
Rainer
chpicker
Programmer
- Apr 10, 2001
- 1,316
That's as good an idea as I can think of offhand, Rainer. It's easy enough to simply assign a sequential or random number as a primary key, but that doesn't help pick out people who don't tell you they're already in the system. You end up with a lot of duplicates that way.
My customer table is actually based on the customer's Medical Assistance number, which works very well since the state assigns those numbers. We've never had a duplicate yet.
)
Ian
My customer table is actually based on the customer's Medical Assistance number, which works very well since the state assigns those numbers. We've never had a duplicate yet.
)Ian
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