How to generate unique order number?

Question

I\'m looking for a good way to generate a unique order ID. Can you see any problems with the code below?

int customerId = 10000000;

long ticks = DateTime.UtcNow         


        

Answer 1

IF you're using SQL Server, you should really look up the IDENTITY specification. It lets you do this with ease and speed.

Your solution isn't unique because things can happen so fast in the system that two processes, either running in sequence or concurrently, can get the same tick value.