Fields and Records

1. Format. The formatting is used to control the look of the data entered in a field. The formatting types depend upon the field types - Numeric and Currency, Date/Time, Yes/No and Text/Memo:
   1. Number/Currency Format
      1. General Number (Default): Displays number as entered.
      2. Currency: Uses thousand separators (E.g. 32,267) and displays negative numbers.
      3. Fixed: No rounding off is done. Generally it displays at least one digit with two decimal places.
      4. Standard: This propertyuses a thousand separator with two decimal places.
      5. Percent: This property multiplies value by 100 and appends a percent sign.
      6. Scientific: Uses the standard scientific notation for displaying numbers.

   

   2. Date/Time Format: These are the format property settings for Date/Time data types.
      1. General Date (default): If the value is date only no time is displayed. Example 5/6/87 06:36:00 PM , 5/6/87 and 06:36:00 PM
      2. Long Date: Displays date along with day and month names.
      3. Medium Date: Example 05-sep93
      4. Short Date: Example 5/7/97
      5. Long Time: Example5:34 23 PM
      6. Medium Time: Example 05.35 PM
      7. Short Time: Example 16:30

   

   3. Yes/No format: The format property settings for Yes/No data types.
      1. Yes/No (Default): It uses the values as: Yes= -1, No = 0.
      2. True/False: It uses the values as: True = -1, False = 0.
      3. On/Off: It uses the values: On =-1, Off = 0

   

   4. Text/Memo format: There is no standard format for text/memo field; however the following symbols can be used to create user-defined formats. These symbols can be used to specify whether a text character is allowed, whether all characters are displayed in uppercase or lowercase etc.
      1. @ Text characters (either a character or a space) and is required.
      2. &. Text character which is not required.
      3. < Force all characters to lowercase.
      4. > Force all characters to uppercase.

The next property is the decimal place.

2. Decimal Places: Decimal places can either be set up to a specific number or to Auto (Default). If Auto is chosen then numbers appear as specified by the Format property settings. The decimal places property is used to display numbers differently from the way specified by the format property setting. For example the currency format displays only two decimal places ($6.50). To display currency numbers with four decimal places (for example, $6.3523), you must use the decimal places property.



Note: the decimal places property will have no effect if the Format property is set to Generic Number

3. Caption This refers to the label that appears for the field when you view a table or its data.



4. Default Values The default value is the value that automatically appears in the field at the time of data entry. The maximum length for a default value is 255 characters. The default value is automatically entered in a field or control when a new record is created. For example, in an address table you might set the default for the city field to California. You can either accept this value or enter the name of a different city.