Working with display formats
Contents
You work with display formats in the Database painter and the
DataWindow painter.
What you do in the Database
painter
In the Database painter, you can:
-
Create, modify, and delete named display formats
The named display formats are stored in the extended attribute
system tables. When you have defined a display format, it can be
used by any column of the appropriate datatype in the
database. -
Assign display formats to columns and remove them from
columnsThese formats are used by default when you place the column in
a DataWindow object in the DataWindow painter.
What you do in the DataWindow
painter
In the DataWindow painter, you can:
-
Accept the default display format assigned to a column in the
Database painter -
Override the default display format with another named format
stored in the extended attribute system tables -
Create an ad hoc, unnamed format to use with one specific
column
Display formats and the extended attribute
system tables
When you have placed a column in a DataWindow object and have
given it a display format (either the default format from the assignment
made in the Database painter for the column or a format assigned in the
DataWindow painter), there is no longer any link to the named format in
the extended attribute system tables.
If the definition of the display format later changes in the
extended attribute system tables, the format for the column in a
DataWindow object does not change. If you want to use the modified
format, you can reapply it to the column in the DataWindow
painter.