Column Initialisation

Use the Initialisation page of the Column Property Editor to determine how each field is to be initialised when a new record is inserted.

Copy

You have the option of copying the current value from a nominated field:

Increment

Or increment the new value by a specified increment (for numeric fields). If there is no existing value to increment, you can select an option to leave the value blank rather than populate the field with a formatted default value:

Click on the Build button to build a Format Mask.

The syntax of a format mask depends on the data type of the source field. The letter used after the percentage sign can be either "s" for String (alphanumeric) or "f" for Float (numeric).

The following are examples of typical format masks:

Mask

Description

%s

String value, variable length

%8s

String value, fixed length (8 characters)

%-10s

String value, fixed length, left justified

%f.2

Numeric, variable length, two decimals

%f8.2

Numeric, fixed length, two decimals

%f8.0

Numeric, fixed length, no decimals

Replace blank values

Blank values can be replaced with either:

  • A fixed constant value

    • Note: Use a fixed value (constant) when initialising a date column. The format dd/MM/yyyy must be used for the fixed date.

  • The current date and time
  • The current user's logon name

  • A value returned from a query

For example:

SELECT HOLE_LENGTH

FROM DBO.COLLAR_DETAILS

WHERE PROJECT = :PROJECT AND HOLE_NAME = :HOLE_NAME

The Initialisation page can be used to deal with identifier columns and unique identifier columns.

Manually executing initialisation while editing a data view

The initialisation code that is programmed into the column properties of the data view is executed automatically when a new record is inserted.

However, in some situations it may be beneficial to execute this code manually while the record is being edited. This can be done by choosing Edit | Initialise Record from the data view menu. It is also possible to initialise several consecutive records by choosing the Edit | Initialise Many menu option.