User manual

40 FileMaker Pro User’s Guide
1 If you’re exchanging data with another application, check the field
naming restrictions in the file formats supported by the other
application.
1 If you’re using ODBC or JDBC to share FileMaker Pro data, avoid
using SQL keywords in field names.
About choosing a field type
When you define a field, you select a field type based on the kind of
information the field will contain. The field type determines what
kind of data can be entered and what kinds of operations
FileMaker
Pro can perform with the data.
FileMaker Pro uses the field type to interpret the data for tasks like
sorting records and performing calculations.
Select this
field type If the field data will be
Text Up to approximately 2 GB of letters, symbols, and/or numbers
used as text per field repetition, limited by available RAM and
disk space. Indexes nominally based on the first 100 characters
of each word or value. Text fields may contain carriage returns.
Number Values up to 800 digits or other characters, and the negative
values of the same range. Number fields can also contain
Boolean values (0 or 1), to indicate, for example, true, false, yes,
and no. Number fields can’t contain carriage returns.
Date Dates only. Uses the Gregorian calendar with a range of 1/1/
0001...12/31/4000. Month, day, and year order is based on
system settings when the file is created.
Time Times only. A time field can contain the hours, minutes, and
seconds portion of a time. A time field can contain a negative
time duration, for example,-08:40:00.
Timestamp Dates and times to reference a fixed point in calendar time. For
example, 10/25/2004 2:39:46 AM
Container 1 Graphics, movies, photos, bitmaps, sounds of up to 4 GB per
field
1 Documents, including Microsoft Word or Excel files, PDF
files, and so on
1 Multimedia file types supported by QuickTime 6.0 or later
1 OLE objects (Windows)
Calculation The result of a calculation formula that uses field values from the
current record or related records. The formula can use values of
all field types. The result can be one of these types of data: text,
number, date, time, timestamp, or container.
Summary A value that’s produced by summarizing field values from more
than one record in the same table.
Select this
field type If the field data will be
Summary fields
produce results from
values in multiple
records
Agent Item Qty Amount
David Michaels ET3 1 $29.95
David Michaels ET4 1 $32.25
David Michaels ET1 2 $73.90
David Michaels ET5 3 $98.85
Total $234.95
Sophie Tang ET6 2 $64.50
Sophie Tang ET7 5 $12.50
Sophie Tang ET2 2 $25.00
Sophie Tang
Total $102.00
Grand Total $336.95
Sales Report
Calculation fields produce results from values
in the current record or related records