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Columns Tab Page

This tab page shows the attributes of all the columns of the current table. By default, the grid shows:

Number

The number of the column in the table.

Name

The name of the column in the table. The information comes from the DF_FIELD_NAME attribute.

Type

The type of the column. Information comes from the DF_FIELD_TYPE.

Length

The length reported by the DF_FIELD_LENGTH attribute. This value is the number of characters or numbers you can enter in the column.

Main Index

This value is the index number that is used when finding on this column. The information comes from the DF_FIELD_INDEX attribute.

Native Length

The length that the data really occupies on disk reported by the DF_FIELD_NATIVE_LENGTH attribute.

Record Identifier

This column shows a bitmap when the table is a recnum table, and the column that operates as the record identifier will be shown as selected. In the case of a standard table, the column shows the sequence number within the primary key for the columns that make up that key. Information is supplied by the DF_FILE_RECORD_IDENTITY.

Relation

This column shows relationship information from this column to a parent column. If the table and column name can be retrieved, the column shows tablename.columnname. If the information is missing, the tablename will be replaced by TABLE_NNN, the columnname will be replaced by COLUMN_NNN, and a picture is shown to indicate missing information.

Data / Parent Data

Optionally, you can add two columns named Data and Parent Data to the grid. In these columns, the column values of the current record are shown. For debugging purposes, this is a very useful feature. Not only the column’s data, but also the value from parenttable.column is shown. The selected column’s information is stored in the registry under:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Data Access Worldwide\DataFlex Tools\DbExplorer\ColumnsGrid

When the data column is selected, a timer will refresh the data every 10 seconds (1000 clock ticks). That value is not configurable. You can add these columns – and remove other columns from the grid – via a right mouse click. The floating menu offers two functions:

  • Column Selection
  • Change Column Width

The option Change Column Width sets the property Resize_Column_State of the grid to true, allowing you to change the width of the column. The Column Selection option opens a dialog in which you can select the columns to display.