Auto number column in SharePoint list

Question

In a SharePoint list I want an auto number column that as I add to the list gets incremented. How best can I go about this?

Answer 1

If you want something beyond the ID column that's there in all lists, you're probably going to have to resort to an Event Receiver on the list that "calculates" what the value of your unique identified should be or using a custom field type that has the required logic embedded in this. Unfortunately, both of these options will require writing and deploying custom code to the server and deploying assemblies to the GAC, which can be frowned upon in environments where you don't have complete control over the servers.

If you don't need the unique identifier to show up immediately, you could probably generate it via a workflow (either with SharePoint Designer or a custom WF workflow built in Visual Studio).

Unfortunately, calculated columns, which seem like an obvious solution, won't work for this purpose because the ID is not yet assigned when the calculation is attempted. If you go in after the fact and edit the item, the calculation may achieve what you want, but on initial creation of a new item it will not be calculated correctly.