How to make a unique id (like XX><XX><XXXXX) in KoBoToolbox

[kawo786]

How can I make special format for ID like below

<2/3 letters><ZP/TC><86343>

[Kal_Lam]

Hi @kawo786,

Please see the discussion that has happened earlier which should guide you on how to create unique id based on your available variables:

Automatically displaying unique ID number

Dear Experts, I am not a programmer though I am preparing a XLSForm for data collection. I caught in a trouble when developing the form. The problem I am facing is, Automatic display of Household Identification Number in a box. For example, Region Name: Barisal District Name: Chandgaon Cluster Name: Rahalia Village Name: Pandgaon Household Serial Number: 0012 Household Identification Number will be: 3 letter for Region Name-3 letter of District Name-3 letter of Cluster Name-3 letter of …

Have a great day!

[kawo786]

Dear Sir, I understood this but I do not want that the user will right serial number after 2 part like

[Kal_Lam]

Hi @kawo786,

Could you provide us some examples so that we could have a look at it.

Have a great day!

[kawo786]

The person will select from dropdown one of this 4 options:

1. Kandahar
2. Nimroz
3. Nangarhar
4. Kabul
   and after that the person will select this two option:
5. ZP
6. TC
   and after that the system will give an unique automatic ID with 5 or 6 digit numbers
   and all of the above will be concatenation and the result will be:
   KDH-ZP-242452
   and this above ID will be unique and just for one person if this will be offline or online because many users will use this questionnaire at the same time.

[stephanealoo]

Hi
There could be a workaround which relies on use of various functions. From the look of things, you should probably know that concat works perfectly fine as calculation. I would therefore suggest the following steps:

1. For the first drop down, you must define the values in the choices sheet to be the letters you want for each of the four choices. Let us call this ${Q3}
2. For the second part, the values should be the letters you want too. Let us call this ${Q2}
3. The third part, you should create a calculate question with the formula **substr((today()*now()random()100),0,6) Let us call this ${Q3}

For the last part, you now need to create a unique ID which should be a text question but with a calculate option added to it. This you can do in XLS. You will need the formula concat(${Q1},"-",${Q2},"-",${Q3})

This is a sample of the XLS file for doing that TestCalculate.xls (26.5 KB)

The look and feel would be something like this.

Create a random generated number with 6 digits, this could be the specific time and date

Hope this helps

Stephane

[kawo786]

Thanks a lot sir

[analucia_espinoza]

Hello! Does this number change if I edit the form, you see I need to evaluate and send back the form with maybe some changes, is there a way I can get a number that’s unique and that doesnát change with the edits