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Creating a database
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ILEMAKER PRO HELP 172
Notes
• A timestamp field always includes a date and a time of day. You must specify formats for
both date and time components to change the format of a timestamp. See
Specifying
formats for timestamp fields.
• Mathematical operations performed on timestamps are similar to those performed on time
fields, and have a resolution of seconds (date fields have a resolution of days). Because
one unit of timestamp is one second, to add one day's worth of time to a timestamp you
would add 86400 (60 seconds to a minute * 60 minutes to a hour * 24 hours to a day) to the
value in the field.
• There are no negative timestamps.
• The minimum and maximum values of a timestamp are 1/1/0001 12:00 AM and 12/31/4000
11:59:59.999999 PM.
• The separators in time fields and the order in which the time parts appear depend on the
system formats set for the file and the display format for the field. To change the display
format for a field (for example, 11:09 PM or 23:09), set options in the Inspector in Layout
mode. See
Specifying formats for timestamp fields.
• When you select Insert menu > Current Time in an active timestamp field, FileMaker Pro
inserts the full current date and time.
• When you select Insert menu > Current Date in an active timestamp field, FileMaker Pro
inserts the current date only.
• To specify how data in a timestamp field displays (for example, to specify whether the value
shows the day of the week or “AM” and “PM”), see
Formatting and setting up field objects in
Layout mode.
• If you are using FileMaker Pro Advanced, you can copy field schemas from one file and
paste them into the same file or some other file. See Copying and pasting field schemas
(FileMaker Pro Advanced).
Related topics
About defining database fields
Working with data in date fields
Working with data in time fields
Dates are not as expected
About container fields
Use container fields to store any file:
• photos, movies, sounds
• documents, including Microsoft Word and Excel files, PDF files, and so on
You can reference container fields in calculation formulas or summary fields.
Data in container fields is by default embedded. You can, instead:
• store a reference in the field when you select a file to insert into it
• define the field to store data externally
FileMaker Pro saves externally stored container data in the same folder in which the database file is
located. See
Managing external storage of container data.