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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:

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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

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 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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 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. 

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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.

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Bigstring
Bigstring
Bigstring

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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

 If you store a number with decimal places as an integer it will be truncated.

Float

Apply a float type float type to non-integer numbers with an undefined level of precision.

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Decimal
Decimal
Decimal

Apply a decimal type decimal type to non-integer numbers with a set level of precision. Decimals have a specific number of:

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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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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).
14 02 201914 Feb 201902 14 2019Feb 14 2019
dd/MM/yyyydd-MMM-yyyyMM/dd/yyyyMMM/dd/yyyy
dd-MM-yyyydd/MMM/yyyyMM-dd-yyyyMMM-dd-yyyy
dd MM yyyydd MMM yyyyMM dd yyyyMMM dd yyyy


MM d yyyyMMM d yyyy
14 02 1914 Feb 1902 14 19Feb 14 19
dd/MM/yydd/MMM/yyMM/dd/yyMMM/dd/yy
dd MM yydd-MMM-yyMM-dd-yyMMM-dd-yy
dd-MM-yydd MMM yyMM dd yyMMM dd yy


MM d yyMMM d yy

Datetime

Apply a datetime type to representations of a day and a time. It cannot be used to represent a time alone.

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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?Apply a graphic type to fields that contain image files.

TrueFalse

Apply a TrueFalse type to fields that can have the values that represent true or false.

The values that are saved as represent true are:

  • any number other than 0
  • for a list: all items in the list are true
  • the following case-insensitive strings
    • true
    • t
    • yes
    • y.

The values that are saved as represent false are:

  • 0 (zero)
  • any string not listed as true above including false
  • an empty/null field.