Chapter 3 Building Physical Diagrams


Column properties

You can access column properties from a table property sheet:

Property Description
Name The name of the item which should be clear and meaningful, and should convey the item's purpose to non-technical users
Code The technical name of the item used for generating code or scripts, which may be abbreviated, and should not generally include spaces
Comment Descriptive label for the column
Stereotype Sub-classification used to extend the semantics of an object without changing its structure; it can be predefined or user-defined
Table Table which contains column
Data type Form of the data corresponding to the column, such as numeric, alphanumeric, boolean, or others
Displayed When selected, allows the display of selected column in list of columns, otherwise the column is grayed
Length Maximum length of the data type
Precision Maximum number of places after the decimal point
Identity When selected, indicates that the data is auto-incremented (not available for all DBMS)
Domain Name of the associated domain
Computed When selected, designates that the column is computed from an expression using values from other columns in the table (not available for all DBMS)
Primary key When selected, designates a column whose values uniquely identify a row in the table
Foreign key When selected, designates a column that depends on and migrates from a primary key column in another table
Mandatory When selected, indicates a column that must be assigned a not null value
With default When selected, indicates if a default value is assigned to the column when a Null value is inserted (not available for all DBMS)

A column also includes the following properties:

Property Description
Detail Column fill parameters. These determine the percentage of column entries for which a null value is permitted, and the percentage of column rows that contain unique values.

Test data parameters. You can select a test data profile from the list available using the dropdown listbox

Computed Expression. You can enter a computed expression for the column
Standard checks Standard check parameters
Additional checks SQL expression defining a check parameter
Options Physical options for columns. These are DBMS-specific

 


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