User Attributes

For information on the parameters in this dialog that are common to all readers, see:

For information on the parameters in this dialog that are common to all writers, see:

User attributes for this format are defined below.

Name The name of the field to be written.
Type

Choose one of the following field types.

Closedchar(<length>)

Character fields store fixed-length strings. The length parameter controls the maximum characters that can be stored by the field. When a character field is written, it is right-padded with blanks, or truncated, to fit the width. When a character field is retrieved, any padding blank characters are stripped away.

Closeddate

Date fields store dates as character strings with the format YYYYMMDD. Note that <fieldname>.full contains the time as well and is of the format YYYYMMDDHHMMSS.

Closedsmallint

Integer fields store whole numbers. This one is 2 bytes or 16 bits long.

Closedinteger

Integer fields store whole numbers. This one is 4 bytes or 32 bits long.

Closedfloat

Real fields store decimal numbers. This one is 4 bytes or 32 bits long.

Closeddouble

Real fields store decimal numbers. This one is 8 bytes or 64 bits long.

Closednumber (<width>,<decimals>)

Fields created with this option will be converted to smallint, integer, or double depending on the value of width and decimal parameters.

The width parameter is the total number of characters allocated to the field, including the decimal point. The decimals parameter controls the precision of the data and is the number of digits to the right of the decimal.

If the decimal is zero and width is less than 5, then the field type will be changed to smallint. If the decimal is zero and width is greater than 5 and less than 10, then the field type will be changed to integer. For all other cases, the field type will be treated as double.
Index

Data tables can be created with either primary or secondary indexes by setting the Index column. The Index column value can be set to:

  • PrimaryKey: Creates a primary index on table creation.
  • Indexed: Creates a secondary index on table creation.

Note that there can only be one primary index per table. If one is not specified, the default PRIMARYINDEX column will be created and indexed as the primary index.

Users can rename the default PRIMARYINDEX column by modifying Default Primary Index Column under Feature Type Parameters.

If any column in the Attribute Definition tab is specified as “primary” indexed, then Default Primary Index Column will be ignored. If no column is specified “primary”, and Default Primary Index Column is set to a column name specified in the Attribute Definition tab, then on table creation, that particular column will become a primary index column.