User manual

Chapter 3 | Creating databases 58
Keep these points in mind:
1 Any field type except summary can store a global value. For more information, see “About
indexing and storage options” on page 69.
1 Be sure to use a date field (instead of a text or number field) to store dates. To avoid confusion
when using dates, always use four-digit years.
1 Use text fields instead of number fields to store postal codes, phone numbers, and other values
with leading zeroes or characters like hyphens or parentheses.
1 Although you can’t find or sort records based on a container field, you can define a text field to
describe or identify the contents of the container. Then, you can find or sort records based on
the data in that text field.
1 To change the way data is displayed in text, number, date, time, and timestamp fields, see
“Formatting field data on a layout” on page 89.
Summary fields produce results
from values in multiple records
Salesperson Item Qty Extended Price
David Michaels FB3 1 $3.95
David Michaels FB4 1 $17.50
David Michaels FB1 2 $19.90
David Michaels FB5 3 $52.50
Total $93.85
Sophie Tang FB6 2 $39.00
Sophie Tang FB7 5 $77.50
Sophie Tang FB2 2 $45.00
Total $161.50
Grand Total $255.35
Sales Report
Calculation fields produce results from values in
the current record or related records
Favorite Bakery Confidential June 2014