Yes, of course. Forcing the ref to numeric does it, and that is my answer. Embarrassingly easy.

"But why not store the reference itself?" Not sure what you mean here. For my Guttman-Rosler-Schwartz sort I'm creating a sort key with pack. Given the number you just showed me how to get, I stuff it into a "J" field. How would I "store the reference itself"? And why do I want to? Since the packed keys in a GRS Transform are thrown away once the sort is done, I've no real use for an actual reference -- all I need is a unique numeric cookie. I don't need to dereference from the sort key.

Or do I miss your point?

jeffrey kegler

In reply to Re^2: Unique numeric ID for reference? by Jeffrey Kegler
in thread Unique numeric ID for reference? by Jeffrey Kegler

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