Attribute

Owned by Fiona Sargeant (Unlicensed)
Last updated: Jun 09, 2022 by Anthony GeorgeVersion comment
3 min read

This page is for data modellers and application designers who need to work with data in tables.

Overview

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

  • the repository. Attributes are listed under their table.
  • the Table properties → Attributes section
  • other attribute lists. 

 

Property Pane Toolbar

For information about the toolbar options, see the Common Properties page, Toolbars and Controls section.

 Properties Tab

Parent Details

If this item is within or belongs to another, it's parent name is shown here. See the Common Properties page, Parent Details section for more details.

Basic Settings

FieldDescription
Name

Enter the name of the attribute.

PhixFlow recognises the attribute name UID as a unique identifier for a record. As records are added, PhixFlow automatically increments the UID value.

Type

Select the type of data this attribute contains; see Understanding Data Types.

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

Length

This field is available when Type is String. By default strings are 50 characters long. Optionally specify a different string length of between 1 and 4000.

For strings longer than 4000 characters, set a Type of Bigstring. 

Precision

This field is available when Type is Integer. Enter the maximum number of digits allowed in whole numbers. By default, integers are 10 digits long. Optionally specify a different integer precision of between 1 digit and 38 digits.

Significant FiguresThis field is available when Type is Decimal. Enter the maximum number of total digits for decimal numbers.  By default decimals have 10 significant figures.
Example

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. By default, decimals have 2 decimal places.

This must be less than the number of significant figures.

Local

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

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

Indexed

 Untick to prevent this attribute being indexed in the PhixFlow database.

 Tick to index this attribute in the PhixFlow database.

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

  • filter the data
  • sort or group the data.
Primary Key

 Tick indicates this attribute is a primary key. This means it contains a unique identifier for every record in the table. 

Foreign Key Tick indicates this attribute is a foreign key. This means and ERD links this attribute to a primary key attribute in an other table; see Understanding ERDs.
Display Name Tick indicates the name of this attribute is used as the label rather than the primary key attribute name.
Order

The order of the attributes in the table. 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 and expression; see Expressions and PhixScripts. It must evaluate to a single value, of the type specified in the Type field.

Advanced

FieldDescription
Filter conditions are
case-independent by default

Available when Basic Settings → Type is String or Bigstring.

 Untick to use filters that are case-sensitive.

 Tick 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. 

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

 Untick for in-memory table, to specify that this field is not a key value.

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

Translate Values 

Available when Basic Settings → Type is String or Bigstring.

 Untick to ignore this attribute when translating text in PhixFlow (the default).

 Tick to include this attribute when translating text that appears in PhixFlow. To be translated, the attribute text must be included in a translation table; see Translating an Application Interface and Translation Table.

Cache Key

Enter an expression to be evaluated for each record in the table . The expression can:

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

Once calculated, the cache key value persists throughout subsequent calculation, rather than being created from scratch for each record 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. 

Description

We recommend that you always enter a description to explain the purpose of this item.

 Security Tab

Access Permissions

See the Common Properties page, Access Permissions section.

 Audit Tab

Audit Summary

See the Common Properties page, Audit Summary section.

Sections on this page

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Terminology changes in progress

As part of the redesign of PhixFlow, we are changing the following terms:

dashboard → screen   
stream → table
stream attributes → attributes
stream item → record
stream set → recordset
stream view → view
stream item action → record-action 
stream action → table-action
driver class → database driver