1. Administering FreeForm
  2. Accessing More Administrative Tasks
  3. Administering Dimensions
  4. About Dimensions
  5. Working with Attributes
  6. Understanding Attribute Data Types

Understanding Attribute Data Types

Attribute dimensions can have a data type of text, numeric, Boolean, or date that enables different functions for grouping, selecting, or calculating data. The attribute type applies only to level 0 members of the attribute dimension.

  • Text attributes enable basic attribute member selection and attribute comparisons in calculations. When you perform such comparisons, characters are compared. For example, a package type Bottle is less than a package type Can because B precedes C in the alphabet.

  • Numeric attribute dimensions use numeric values for the names of level 0 members. You can include the names (values) of numeric attribute dimension members in calculations. For example, you can use the number of ounces specified in an Ounces attribute to calculate profit per ounce for each product. You can also associate numeric attributes with ranges of base dimension values, for example, to analyze product sales by market population groupings.

  • Boolean attribute dimensions in a database contain only two members. When a Boolean attribute dimension is added in the business process, two attribute values, True and False, are created for this attribute dimension by default. A base dimension, such as Account or Entity, can be associated with only one attribute dimension that has the Boolean data type.

  • Date attributes can specify the date format as month-day-year or day-month-year, and sequence information accordingly. You can use date attributes in calculations, for example, comparing dates in a calculation that selects product sales since 12-22-1998. Users can set the date format by selecting an option in Attribute Dimension Date Format in Application Settings.

    Caution:

    Before you can work with date attributes, you must toggle the Attribute Dimension Date Format selection in Application Settings and save it. From the Home page, click Application, and then click Settings. In Attribute Dimension Date Format, select a date format (MM-dd-yyyy or dd-MM-yyyy), and then click Save. After you select and save the date format, you must manually change any existing attribute date values to the supported format. If any date attributes in your application use an unsupported format, the system will provide you with a list of dimension attribute values that you will need to fix.

    Also, if the Attribute Dimension Date Format setting is changed in the application settings, you must change any date attributes in the original format to the new format before you can add or save a new attribute.