You are correct, and I agree. Identity columns should not be used for business data in that way. My point was that the transaction responsible for assigning the "gapless" sequence in the original example SP would achive this, but the function as re-written would not. I would normally expect to assign such numbers in a batch process and allocate them all or not at the end of the day. In some cases, we see internet buisinesses where the (for example) invoice number has to be applied immidiatly to allow a web based order processing system, coulpled with the business requiremet for no gaps in the sequence of tax invoice numbers. In this specific case, the original stored proceedure works, but the re-write may not.