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Overview

Use the stream attributes properties tab to specify the characteristics of the the data in a table column.  

This setting is not available from the repository browser. It opens from:

  • the Stream properties → Attributes table
  • other attribute lists. 

Stream Attribute Properties

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Basic Settings

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  • String for text strings 
  • Bigstring for text
  • Integer for text
  • Float for text
  • Decimal for text
  • Date for text
  • Datetime for text
  • Graphic for text
  • TrueFalse for text

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Length

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This field is available when Type is String. Enter the maximum number of characters allowed in text data. For unlimited text strings, set a Type of  Bigstring. 

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titleExample

To specify numbers must have two digits before and after the decimal point, such as 12.34, enter:

Significant Figures  4

Decimal Places  2

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This field is available when Type is Decimal. Enter the maximum number of digits allowed after the decimal point.

This must be less than the number of significant figures.

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The order of the attributes in the stream. Stream attribute expressions are evaluated in this order. 

This is important when you need to use the results of a calculation in another attribute:

  • either in its expression
  • or in a $ variable 

In the attribute list, the attribute that calculates the result must come before the attribute that requires the result.

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Advanced

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Overview

Use the stream attributes properties tab to specify the characteristics of the the data in a table column.  You can open attribute properties from:

  • the repository. Attributes are listed under their stream
  • the Stream properties → Attributes table
  • other attribute lists. 

Stream Attribute Properties

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Basic Settings

FieldDescription
NameEnter the name of the attribute.
Type

Select the attribute type for the data.

  • String
  • Bigstring
  • Integer
  • Float
  • Decimal
  • Date
  • Datetime
  • Graphic
  • TrueFalse

Length

This field is available when Type is String. Enter the maximum number of characters allowed in text data. For unlimited text strings, set a Type of Bigstring. 

PrecisionThis field is available when Type is Integer. Enter the maximum number of digits allowed in whole numbers.
Significant FiguresThis field is available when Type is Decimal. Enter the maximum number of total digits for decimal numbers. 


Panel
borderColor#01cff1
borderWidth4
titleBGColor#01cff1
titleExample

To specify numbers must have two digits before and after the decimal point, such as 12.34, enter:

Significant Figures  4

Decimal Places  2



Decimal Places

This field is available when Type is Decimal. Enter the maximum number of digits allowed after the decimal point.

This must be less than the number of significant figures.

Local

 

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 to keep both stream data and any result of using it in a calculation. 

Insert excerpt
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 if you need to use the attribute in a stream calculation, but you do not need to keep the result.

Order

The order of the attributes in the stream. Stream attribute expressions are evaluated in this order. 

This is important when you need to use the results of a calculation in another attribute:

  • either in its expression
  • or in a $ variable.

In the attribute list, the attribute that calculates the result must come before the attribute that requires the result.

ExpressionThe expression used to generate the attribute value. This is written as a PhixFlow Expression. It must evaluate to a single value, of the type specified in the Type field.

Advanced

 to index this attribute in the underlying database.

To improve performance, index an attribute when the stream has a large data set and an output pipe from the stream uses this attribute to:

  • filter the stream data
  • sort or group the stream data.
Filter conditions are
case-independent by default to set new filter conditions on this attribute to be case-insensitive by default. The filter window → Ignore Case check box inherits this setting; see Filters on Data Views. For case-insensitive filters, there is no difference if the attribute is also indexed. 
FieldDescription
Indexed

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 to index this attribute in the underlying database.

To improve performance, index an attribute when the stream has a large data set and an output pipe from the stream uses this attribute to:

  • filter the stream data
  • sort or group the stream data.
Filter conditions are
case-independent by default

Insert excerpt
_check_box_ticked
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nopaneltrue

 to set new filter conditions on this attribute to be case-insensitive by default. The filter window → Ignore Case check box inherits this setting; see Filters on Data Views. For case-insensitive filters, there is no difference if the attribute is also indexed. 

Note
This option affects the behaviour of filters for PhixFlow instances running on Oracle or MariaDB (MySQL) databases.
For PhixFlow instances running on a SQL Server database, filters are always case-independent.


Key

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Note
This option affects the behaviour of filters for PhixFlow instances running on Oracle or MariaDB (MySQL) databases.
For PhixFlow instances running on a SQL Server database, filters are always case-independent.
Key Insert excerpt_check_box_ticked_check_box_tickednopaneltrue for in-memory streams, to specify that this field will be used as a key value. Cache Key

Enter an expression to be evaluated for each stream item (data record) in the stream. The expression can:

  • either use the value of this attribute
  •  or calculate a different value

Once calculated, the cache key value persists throughout subsequent stream calculation, rather than being created from scratch for each stream item as normal. This allows you to keep track of the calculation as it progresses.

This means you can use a "persistent" attribute value in other expressions. 

Access Permissions

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This grid is available if All Users Can View Data is not ticked.

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Apply aAll stream attributes have a type. The default is string.

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 for in-memory streams, to specify that this field will be used as a key value. 

Cache Key

Enter an expression to be evaluated for each stream item (data record) in the stream. The expression can:

  • either use the value of this attribute
  •  or calculate a different value

Once calculated, the cache key value persists throughout subsequent stream calculation, rather than being created from scratch for each stream item as normal. This allows you to keep track of the calculation as it progresses.

This means you can use a "persistent" attribute value in other expressions. 

Access Permissions

FieldDescription
All Users Can View Data
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 to allow all users to view the data in this stream attribute.
User Groups

This grid is available if All Users Can View Data is not ticked.

To provide access permissions to specific user groups:

  1. Click the
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     icon.
  2. PhixFlow opens the repository, showing the user groups in the repository.
  3. Drag user groups into the grid.

Anchor
attributes
attributes
Attribute Types

All stream attributes have a data type. When loading data from a source, such as a file or database, PhixFlow applies the data type from the source. If there is no data type specified, PhixFlow applies the default type of string.

You can change the type of a stream attribute before the data has been loaded into the stream.

Once the stream contains data, you may be able to change the data type, depending on the database on which PhixFlow runs. PhixFlow reports an error if you are not permitted to change the data type. In this case you can rollback all stream sets so that the stream no longer contains data; see Rollback.

String

Apply a string type to sequences of characters, such as letters, numerals, symbols and punctuation marks. By default string attribute types have a default length of 50. However you can configure a minimum length of 1 and a maximum length of 4000.

Anchor
Bigstring
Bigstring
Bigstring

Apply a bigstring type to text strings over 4000 characters long. Bigstring is a different data type to string and has some restrictions on filtering, sorting and aggregation.For . For PhixFlow instances that use an Oracle database, bigstrings:

  • cannot be sorted or aggregated

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  • can only be filtered with the conditions:
    • (not) contains
    • is (not) null
    • (not) starts with
    • (not) ends with.

The maximum bigstring size can be configured in System Configuration → System Tuning → Maximum Bigstring Size.

Integer

Apply an integer type to whole numbers (not a fractions or decimals) that can be positive, negative, or zero. The number of digits in an integer indicates its precision.

  • The default precision is 10 digits
  • The minimum precision is 1 digit
  • The maximum precision is 38

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Note

Ensure your decimal type has the number of decimal places you need for your data. Once the data is loaded into PhixFlow, you will not be able to recover excess decimal placesto recover excess decimal places.

The default number of decimal places is set in System Configuration → General Settings → Decimal places.

Date

Apply a date type to representations of a calendar day. Word formats, such as Tuesday the fourteenth of February are not recognised. However, three letter month abbreviations are recognised, for example: 14 Feb 2019.

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  • y represents year digits
  • M represents month digits or MMM represents three letters
  • d represents day digits
  • separators can be forward slash / hyphen - or a space.

The default number of date format is set in System Configuration → General Settings → Default Date Format.

Recognised Date Formats

  • the international standard format has not separators and is yyyyMMdd, for example 20190214. 
  • the following variations (examples shown with space separators).

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The international datetime uses a full stop/period as a separator between the date and time, yyyyMMdd.HHmmss, for example 20190214.15:35:06.

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.HHmmss, for example

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20190214.15:

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35:

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06.

Note

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The default number of date format is set in System Configuration → General Settings → Default Date/Time Format.

Graphic

Is this still available?

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