Data types in Analytics

Used in ACCPAC accounting applications. The length of this data field is always 6 bytes. Analytics overrides any other specified length.

An Analytics-generated 12 byte field that stores the results of Analytics computations. It is designed to store large numbers and is not a printable field. Analytics will automatically assign this type to a field when it is appropriate.

Used for data stored in the ASCII character encoding (American Standard Code for Information Interchange).

Analytics uses extended ASCII which defines 256 printable and non-printable characters. The actual characters available in Analytics are specified by the operating system's default 8-bit code page.

The maximum length of an ASCII field is 32767 bytes.

Used for floating point data types formatted for the BASIC programming language. The field length of this data type can be either 4 or 8 bytes.

The maximum length is 8 bytes. The number of decimals is implied and cannot exceed the number of digits specified by the length.

Binary fields of even length are treated as signed binary fields (twos compliment), and odd lengths are treated as unsigned fields (implicit high-order zero bytes are added).

Used to enable user-defined character substitutions when data is read from the data source. This data type reads data as ASCII text unless there is a substitution character defined in a file named custom.dat.

For more information, see Custom data type.

Used for date, datetime, and time data stored using a variety of different formats, such as YYMMDD, or YYMMDD hh:mm:ss. The Format setting in the field definition specifies how to read datetime data from the data source.

Used for Extended Binary Coded Decimal Interchange Code (EBCDIC) data, which is an 8-bit character encoding, on IBM server operating systems. The length of this data type is a maximum of 32767 bytes.

Used for double precision floating-point numbers. The field length of this data type can be either 4 or 8 bytes.

Used for half-byte aligned packed data found in Unisys/Burroughs systems. Signed numbers must follow the Unisys/Burroughs convention. The start position and length of this data type must be specified in half bytes. The start position can be calculated as follows:

(byte_position*2)-1

This data type can only be selected in the Table Layout dialog box.

Used for IBM floating-point data, which is mainly found in mainframe scientific applications. The field length of this data type can be either 4 or 8 bytes long.

Used for single character fields that represent Boolean data (usually true or false). Analytics can interpret the following sets of values, where the first value evaluates to true and the second evaluates to false:

1/0, T/F, t/f, Y/N, y/n, non-blank/ASCII blank (Hex 20)

Used for unsigned binary numeric data representing integer or long data types. The maximum length is 8 bytes. The number of decimals is the implied number of decimal digits, and cannot exceed the number of digits implied by the length. Micro fields with even lengths are treated as signed binary fields, and fields with odd lengths are treated as unsigned fields.

Used by Analytics to store information about the record notes associated with an Analytics table. You cannot define fields using the Note data type.

Used for printable numeric data that corresponds to the COBOL display type. This field type can include any punctuation, but most commonly includes leading or trailing blanks, an optional leading or trailing sign, embedded commas, and an explicit decimal point.

This data type can contain a maximum of 22 digits plus 18 characters of punctuation, for a total length of 40 bytes, and leading zeros are treated as blanks.

This data type should be used with caution because the number of decimal points specified for the field are applied whether appropriate or not. For example, if you specify 2 decimal places and the values $500.50 and $399 are read, the first value will be interpreted correctly as 500.50, but the second value will be interpreted as 3.99 instead of 399.00.

If the specified decimal places differ from the explicit decimals in the field, the field is rounded to the appropriate number of decimals.

Analytics correctly interprets parentheses and “CR” as negative, but ignores commas and other punctuation, such as dollar signs ($). Signs can be leading or trailing, fixed, or floating.

Used for packed numeric data from mainframe operating systems that stores two numeric digits per byte. The rightmost byte contains a sign indication in the lower half of the byte, usually hexadecimal C for positive and hexadecimal D for negative. (Using hexadecimal B to indicate negative numbers is not supported.) The upper half of the rightmost byte and each half of all other bytes contain one hexadecimal digit that represents the numeric digit of that position in the number.

The length of this data type is a maximum of 12 bytes (23 digits); however, Analytics generates an error message if it encounters a number larger than 22 digits. Consequently, when you define a packed numeric field in the Table Layout dialog box, the number of decimals that you specify in the Dec text box must not result in numbers longer than 22 digits. For example, if your data contains seven-digit figures, you cannot specify more than 15 decimal places (22 digits – 7 digits).

Packed Numeric fields can also be used to store date information in numeric form.

Similar to the ASCII data type. You can use it when the data in a file is created by a DOS application.

The PCASCII characters available in Analytics are specified by code page 437.

The maximum length of a PCASCII field is 32767 bytes.

Used for printable numeric data that corresponds to the COBOL display type. This field type can include any punctuation, but most commonly includes leading or trailing blanks, an optional leading or trailing sign, embedded commas, and an explicit decimal point.

This data type can contain a maximum of 22 digits plus 18 characters of punctuation, for a total length of 40 bytes, and leading zeros are treated as blanks.

This data type should be used instead of the Numeric (Unformatted)/NUMERIC type when the decimal digits are not included for every numeric value. For example, if you specify 2 decimal places and the values $500.50 and $399 are read, this data type will correctly interpret both values (500.50 and 399.00).

If the specified decimal places differ from the explicit decimals in the field, the field is rounded to the appropriate number of decimals.

Analytics correctly interprets parentheses and “CR” as negative, but ignores commas and other punctuation, such as dollar signs ($). Signs can be leading or trailing, fixed, or floating.

Used for Unicode character data.

For Unicode data, Analytics uses the UTF-16LE character encoding.

This data type is only available in the Unicode edition of Analytics.

Used to read Unisys/Burroughs byte-aligned packed data. Signed numbers must follow the Unisys/Burroughs convention, and unsigned Unisys packed data should use the Unsigned Packed/UNSIGNED data type. The maximum length of this field type is 12 bytes, or 22 digits.

Used for unsigned packed data, which is a data type that stores two decimal digits per byte. The length of this data type is a maximum of 11 bytes or 22 decimal digits. The number of decimal places cannot exceed the maximum number of digits possible for this field.

Used for type-D floating-point data from Digital Equipment Corporation’s VAX systems. The length of this data type is either 4 or 8 bytes.