Sharepoint Auto-increment

August 6, 2007 12:37 PM

Sharepoint Filter: Does anyone know how to create fields/columns in MS Sharepoint lists where a field number will auto-increment based upon the field number in the previous record? It may be possible to use a calculated field but we've been running into some walls on that one.
posted by rlef98 to computers & internet (5 answers total)

Which version of SharePoint?
posted by mmascolino at 1:16 PM on August 6, 2007

I checked out www.collutions.com, and they didn't have anything. Looking at the help withing WSS 2.0, you can total columns, but there's nothing about auto increment.

Having said that, as an admin, you can totally modify any list. I'd say take an Issues list, strip it of all the fields but the one, and use that. Or a task list.
posted by lysdexic at 2:28 PM on August 6, 2007

Sharepoint Portal Server 2003 is the version.

I looked at collutions.com as well but nada. I figured auto-increment would be a bit simpler.
posted by rlef98 at 2:32 PM on August 6, 2007

Doing this in SPS2003 would be "very hard". You would need to use an event handler on the list and write some pretty ugly .Net code.

It would be marginally easier in SharePoint 2007, but still would require .Net development.

Calculated fields won't work.
posted by MCTDavid at 5:35 PM on August 6, 2007

It's already done for you...

By default, there is a field labeled "ID" that is an auto-integrating integer that is appended to ever list item. You can not modify this since it is a system-field, but by all means you can display it, etc.

Here's what you can do to see it:
- Click the "Modify Settings and Columns" link to go into edit-mode for your List.
- Scroll down to the "Views" section and click the View that you would like to modify
- Click the Display checkbox next to the ID column (you can reorder these fields as well if you'd like)
- Auto-incrementing column is now there for you...

Good luck (and upgrade to 2007 if you get the chance!) :)
posted by cherryghost at 8:33 AM on August 7, 2007 [1 favorite]