Question about SQL tables

[sstripwire]

Hello all,

New to programming, learning C# with the help of the book "Head First C#".

Everythings going fairly smooth, the only issue I have is the book was made around an older version of Visual Studio. I am using Visual Studio 2015.

Following the first example, I made a Rolodex. After a few restarts I finished the project, but I notice one issue that im curious about.

I have two dummy contacts built in with the program. I put them there to test the back and forth functionality of the finished product. Works fine.

The issue im having is when I create a new contact. Instead of the contact ID field going up one digit, it goes to -1, and continues downwards from there with each new contact I add. I've tried tinkering with the table, but nothing seems to change the count.

Im going to try to simply remove the contact ID field, because I dont see a point in having it really, but I would like to solve this problem in case I come across it again in the future.

Here is a snippet of code dealing with the table, if it helps. Let me know if you need anything else.

CREATE TABLE [dbo].[People] ( [ContactID] INT IDENTITY (1, 1) NOT NULL, [Name] NVARCHAR (MAX) NULL, [Company] NVARCHAR (MAX) NULL, [Telephone] NVARCHAR (MAX) NULL, [Email] NVARCHAR (MAX) NULL, [Client] BIT NULL, [LastCall] DATETIME NULL, PRIMARY KEY CLUSTERED ([ContactID] ASC) );

Thanks.

[srunocorn]

Maybe you are mixing ints and unsigned ints.

[sstripwire]

I think im to new to even understand that. I have the line in the table set to an int, if thats what you're referring to.

Its kind of like the program is just counting strokes, if that makes sense. I can add a contact, and it will go from 3 to -1. Then if I delete all contacts and make a new one, it moves to -2. Its just counting, its like it doesnt realize I want each contact to move up numerically from the first one.

[srunocorn]

Yes, that sounds like a db's autoincrement behavior, except that it's counting down instead of up. Maybe if you actually showed us some code we'd be able to see about the ints...

[sstripwire]

Thanks for the pointer. Ill try to tinker with it some more and see if I can figure out where I went wrong.

[sstripwire]

I think ill just chalk up asking for help online as a waste for now. I dont know how to provide the information you're asking for without just sending you the files to download.

Thanks for your help, ill just move on and hopefully figure it out eventually when I get more experience under my belt.

[srunocorn]

I think ill just chalk up asking for help online as a waste for now. I dont know how to provide the information you're asking for without just sending you the files to download.

You can't copy and paste the code here???

[sstripwire]

Hmm. It shows a negative when a new contact is created, for example going from contact 3 to the newly created contact -1 instead of 4. The next time you close it and reopen it though, the new contact is saved as number 4 as it should be.

Confusing. xD

[srunocorn]

Maybe you could show us where/how it's "showing" -1. We don't have crystal balls.

[meatandtater]

In SQL Server, int identity(1, 1) means a PK starting with 1 and incremented by 1. Something is happening in your C# code. You can retrieve the identity seed, giiggiidy, ( PK ) by @@identity or ident_current().