FTYPE( ) function

Returns a character identifying the data category of a field or variable, or the type of an Analytics project item.

Syntax

FTYPE(field_name_string)

Parameters

Name Type Description
field_name_string character

A field name, variable name, or Analytics project item name.

Enclose field_name_string in quotation marks:

 FTYPE("Amount")

Output

Character. This function returns one of the following characters, which indicates the field, variable, or Analytics project item type:

  • "C" Character field
  • "N" Numeric field
  • "D" Datetime field
  • "L" Logical field
  • "c" Character variable
  • "n" Numeric variable
  • "d" Datetime variable
  • "l" Logical variable
  • "b" Analytics script
  • "y" Analytics table layout
  • "w" Analytics workspace
  • "i" Analytics index
  • "r" Analytics report
  • "a" Analytics log file
  • "U" Undefined

Examples

Basic examples

The following example assigns a value of 4 to the num variable and then checks the type.

Returns "n":

ASSIGN num = 4
FTYPE("num")

Advanced examples

Testing for the data type of a field

You have a script or analytic that requires a numeric Amount field, and you need to test that the field is the correct type before running the script.

The following command only runs Script_1 if Amount is a numeric field:

OPEN Invoices
DO Script_1 IF FTYPE("Amount") = "N"

Testing if a table or Analytics project item exists

The following command only runs Script_1 if a table named Invoices is present in the project:

DO Script_1 IF FTYPE("Invoices") <> "U"