XPost: microsoft.public.sqlserver.programming   
   From: genew@ocis.net   
      
   Dear SQLers:   
      
        I continue slowly putting together a Banking database.  I now   
   want to define the Transactions table.  It makes sense to keep   
   transactions together somehow.  For example, a transfer from one   
   account to another is composed of a transfer out and a transfer in. It   
   would be good to be able to see all parts of such a batch.   
      
        I suppose that transactions could be corrected after the fact, so   
   I am really only concerned with a batch balancing when it is entered.   
   How do I generate the batch number?  (I do not want the application   
   doing this.  I want it done in a stored procedure.)   
      
        If I have a common attribute for each transaction in a batch, I   
   could do something like:   
             create table TranBatches   
              (   
              BatchNr int identity(1,1),   
              CommonAttr whoknows   
              )   
   This common attribute might be transaction date.  The transaction   
   table would have an FK into TranBatches.   
      
        What if there is no common attribute?  Then, all I would have is   
   for TranBatches is a table of numbers.  This strikes me as silly.   
      
        I suppose that I could roll my own with a table containing the   
   last batch number generated and add one to it in the stored procedure   
   I come up with for batch processing, but this strikes me as kludgy.   
      
        Is there an elegant way to generate batch numbers for the   
   transactions table, bearing in mind that a batch number will be used   
   for more than one row in the transactions table?   
      
   Sincerely,   
      
   Gene Wirchenko   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
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