User manual

44 FileMaker Pro User’s Guide
About naming fields
Follow these guidelines when naming fields:
1 Field names must be unique. They can contain up to 100 characters.
1 Use descriptive names that clearly identify the contents of the field.
Avoid abbreviations, acronyms, or other terms that may cause
confusion.
1 Don’t use any of the following symbols or words in the field name:
1 , (comma) + – * / ^ & = ≠ > < ≥ ≤ ( ) [ ] {} " ; (semicolon) :
(colon) :: (relational indicator) $ (variable indicator)
1 AND, OR, XOR, NOT, or the name of any FileMaker Pro
function
1 Don’t begin a field name to be used in a calculation formula with a
space, period (.), or number.
1 Use _ (underscore) in place of a space to avoid restrictions in
ODBC (Open Database Connectivity) or JDBC (Java Database
Connectivity), exporting, web publishing, and other operations.
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.
Field names
and definitions
Type a name for a
new field
Select a
field type
Click after you type a field
name and select a field type
Choose the way fields are listed in the dialog box
Click to sort by
field name or type
Select this
field type If the field data will be
Text Up to approximately 1 billion 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