Unique Number Run...

[demon8991]

Right I need to pick your brains on a mathematical dilemma!!

I work for an investment bank so am dealing with numbers all the time, I need to generate a unique number run that can never have a duplicate but there are a lot of variables and that is what I am struggling to get my head round. The number can be big or small but it must be unique to any other number. References for deals get reset at the beginning of every year and that is where the numbers start to duplicate.

The variables are

Client: x,y,z etc
Counterparty: a,b,c (a counterparty can be paired with any client)
Value Date: (a date in the calendar year)
Year: so 09 would give a constant of +9 (possibility but I don’t think it would be essential)
Reference number 1,2,3….600,601 etc

Any help would be greatly apreciated

 

[demon8991]

Thanks for the help guys.

Just been thinking i dont know if this would change anything but if the number runs had to be unique for each client with counterparty would this confuse matters?

Ie

A with X
B with X
C with X

A with Y
B with Y
C with Y

A with Z
B with Z
C with Z

 

[demon8991]

Right basically we are a commodities house of sorts and i need to allocate each deal a unique number to the commodity being used ie 40963 PB (PB being lead) but the number has to be completely unique across all clients and counterparties so that our client can say '40963' refers to that lot of metal that they have purchased from us.

 

[demon8991]

Thanks for all you help guys this has been a really good help for me i had so many ideas in my head about this but didnt actually know whether what i was thinking would be a unique run.