Defining Fields
A field is a particular item of information that helps describe the subject of a table. For example, the name of a customer, the address, and the credit limit are information items that help define a customer. As an example of field properties, access the Cust-Num field by choosing Modify from the Field Editor and then choosing the field.
This is shown in Figure 4–3.
Figure 4–3: Field Editor
Two properties make up the essential definition of a field object: the field name and the data type.
- Field names may be up to 32 characters long and can consist of alphabetic characters (A–Z, a–z), digits (0–9), and the special characters $, &, #, %, -, and _. A field name must begin with an alphabetic character.
- The data type defines what type of data a field can store.
Table 4–3 describes the Progress data types.
Table 4–3: Data Types
Data Type
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Description
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CHARACTER
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Character fields contain any type of data (letters, numbers, and special characters). Some character fields in the Customer table are Name, Address, and Phone.
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INTEGER
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Integer fields contain whole numbers. They can be positive or negative, from roughly -2 billion to 2 billion. The Cust-Num field from the Customer table is an integer field.
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DECIMAL
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Decimal fields hold decimal numbers up to 50 digits in length, including up to 10 digits to the right of the decimal. The Balance field in the Customer table is a decimal field.
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DATE
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Date fields contain dates. The Invoice-Date field in the Invoice table is a date field.
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LOGICAL
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Logical fields contain values that evaluate to YES/NO or TRUE/FALSE. The Backorder field of the Order-Line table is a LOGICAL field.
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