The format type you specify in the
Format Type field is the format for the segment or parameter value. If you use
a validation table for this value set, this format type corresponds to the
format type of the value column you specify in the Validation Table Information
region, regardless of whether you also specify a hidden ID column.
Because your changes affect all
flexfields and report parameters that use the same value set, you cannot change
the format type of an existing value set.
All of these format options affect
both the values you can enter in the Segment Values windows and the values you
can enter in flexfield segments and report parameters.
Below are the available Format
Types:
Char
lets you enter any character values, including letters, numbers, and special
characters such as # $ % ( ) . / , & and *. If you choose this format type
but enter values that appear to be numbers, such as 100 or 20, you should be
aware that these values will still behave as character values. For example, the
value 20 will be "larger" than the value 100. If you want such values
to behave (and be sorted) more like numeric values, you should check the
Numbers Only check box or check the Right-justify and Zero-fill Numbers check
box. If you choose this format type but enter values that appear to be dates,
such as DD-MON-RR or DD-MON-YYYY, you should be aware that these values will
still behave as character values. For example, the value 01-SEP-2007 will be "larger"
than the value 01-DEC-2007. If you want such values to behave (and be sorted)
like date values, you should use the Standard Date format type.
Number
lets you ensure that users enter a numeric value. The numeric format allows a
radix character ('D' or decimal separator) and a plus or minus sign (although
the plus sign is not displayed in the segment). All leading zeros and plus
signs are suppressed, and entered data behaves as in a NUMBER field in Oracle
Forms or a NUMBER column in the database. Note that this format behaves
differently than a "Numbers Only" format, which is actually a
character format.
Real numbers are stored with '.'
internally and displayed using the current radix separator. Group separators
are not used by flexfields. This is also true for Char format, Numbers Only
value sets.
Once you have chosen a Number
format, you can enter a value in the Precision field. Precision indicates the
number of places that should appear after the decimal point in a number value.
For example, to display 18.758, you choose a precision of 3. Similarly, to
display 1098.5, you choose a precision of 1. To display an integer such as 7,
you choose a precision of 0.
Time
enforces a time format such as HH24:MI, depending on the maximum size for this
value set. The following table lists the supported time formats and value set
maximum sizes you can use:
Maximum
Size
|
Time
Format
|
5
|
HH24:MI
|
8
|
HH24:MI:SS
|
You can use corresponding default
values for segments whose value sets use one of the above sizes. You define
these defaults when you define your segments or report parameters.
These values are treated and sorted
as time values.
Standard
Date enforces the user's preferred date format. Users see the dates in the
dates in their preferred format while entering data, querying data and using
the List of Values.
For flexfield segments using value
sets with this format type, the date values are stored in the application
tables in the format YYYY/MM/DD HH24:MI:SS if the columns where the values are
stored are of type VARCHAR2. For report parameters using these value sets the
concurrent manager will pass dates in this format to the report. Because there
is no time component in the Standard Date type value set values, the time
component is 00:00:00.
Note: The underlying column size must be at least 20.
Value sets with the "Standard
Date" and "Standard DateTime" formats can have validation types
of "None", "Table", "Independent",
"Dependent", "Special", or "Pair".i.
You can specify minimum and maximum
boundary values for these value sets in the current NLS date format while
defining the value set.
Table validated value sets using the
"Standard Date" or "Standard DateTime" formats cannot use
the ID column. The VALUE column should be a DATE column or a VARCHAR2 column
(which should have the date values in the canonical format YYYY/MM/DD
HH24:MI:SS). If the existing values in the table are not in the canonical
format you should create a view that will do the conversion to the canonical
format or to a date column and the value set should be defined on this view.
These values are treated and sorted
as date values, so 01-DEC-2007 is "larger" than 01-SEP-2007.
Standard DateTime enforces the
user's date/time format. Users see the dates in the dates in their preferred
format while entering data, querying data and using the List of Values.
For flexfield segments using value
sets with this format type, the date values are stored in the application
tables in the format YYYY/MM/DD HH24:MI:SS if the columns where the values are
stored are of type VARCHAR2. For report parameters using these value sets the
concurrent manager will pass dates in this format to the report.
Note: The underlying column size must be at least 20.
Value sets with the "Standard
Date" and "Standard DateTime" formats can have validation types
of "None", "Table", "Independent",
"Dependent", "Special", or "Pair".
You can specify minimum and maximum
boundary values for these value sets in the current session's date format while
defining the value set.
Table validated value sets using the
"Standard Date" or "Standard DateTime" formats cannot use
the ID column. The VALUE column should be a DATE column or a VARCHAR2 column
(which should have the date values in the canonical format YYYY/MM/DD
HH24:MI:SS). If the existing values in the table are not in the canonical
format you should create a view that will do the conversion to the canonical
format or to a date column and the value set should be defined on this view.
These values are treated and sorted
as date-time values, so 01-DEC-2007 00:00:00 is "larger" than
01-SEP-2007 00:00:00.
Attention:
Date and DateTime value set formats
will be obsolete in a future release and are provided for backward
compatibility only. For new value sets, use the the format types Standard Date
and Standard DateTime.
Date enforces a date format such as
DD-MON-RR or DD-MON-YYYY, depending on the maximum size for this value set. The
following table lists the supported date formats and value set maximum sizes
you can use:
Maximum
Size
|
Date
Format
|
9
|
DD-MON-RR
|
11
|
DD-MON-YYYY
|
You can use corresponding default
values for segments whose value sets use one of the above sizes. You define
these defaults when you define your segments or report parameters.
These values are treated and sorted
as date values, so 01-DEC-2007 is "larger" than 01-SEP-2007.
Note: Date value sets use a fixed date format depending on their
maximum size regardless of the user's date format.
Attention:
Date and DateTime value set formats
will be obsolete in a future release and are provided for backward
compatibility only. For new value sets, use the the format types Standard Date
and Standard DateTime.
DateTime enforces a date format such
as DD-MON-RR HH24:MI, depending on the maximum size for this value set. The
following table lists the supported date-time formats and value set maximum
sizes you can use for DateTime:
Maximum
Size
|
Date
Format
|
15
|
DD-MON-RR HH24:MI
|
17
|
DD-MON-YYYY HH24:MI
|
18
|
DD-MON-RR HH24:MI:SS
|
20
|
DD-MON-YYYY HH24:MI:SS
|
You can use corresponding default
values for segments whose value sets use one of the above sizes. You define
these defaults when you define your segments or report parameters.
These values are treated and sorted
as date-time values, so 01-DEC-2007 is "larger" than 01-SEP-2007.
Note: Date value sets use a fixed date format depending on their
maximum size regardless of the user's date format.
This size represents the longest
value you can enter into a segment that uses this value set, as well as the
longest Display Size you can specify when you define your flexfield segment or
report parameter.
Note: This size is the number of bytes, not characters.
In most cases, this maximum size
cannot exceed the size of the segment column in the underlying table for the
flexfield that uses this value set. If you set the maximum size longer than
that column size, you cannot choose this value set when you define your
flexfield segments or report parameters.
If you define your segments or
report parameters using a Display Size less than this maximum size, then your
pop-up window displays the leftmost characters of the value in the segment.
Your user scrolls through the segment to see any remaining characters.
For report parameters, the largest
maximum size you can use is 240.
If your Format Type is Standard
Date, your maximum size is 11. If your Format Type is Standard DateTime, you
maximum size is 20
If you are defining a value set that
uses a validation table, your maximum size should reflect the size of the
column you specify as your value column. The maximum size must also be equal to
or less than the width of the destination segment column. Therefore, after you
choose your value column size, you may get a message instructing you to modify
the value set maximum size to match your value column width.
However, if you also specify a
hidden ID column for your value set, the flexfield determines if the hidden ID
value will fit into the underlying column rather than the value column. For
example, if you specify your maximum size as 60, which is also the size of your
value column, but you also specify a hidden ID column whose size is 15, you
could still use that value set for a flexfield whose underlying segment column
size is only 20. Such value sets do appear in the value set list of values you
see when you define your flexfield segments or report parameters.
For value sets that contain numeric
values (Number format, or Character format with Numbers Only selected), this
attribute represents the number of digits after the radix character. Values are
stored with exactly this number of digits following the radix character, with
zeroes added or rounding applied as needed. If this field is left empty
("NULL precision"), then the radix character may appear anywhere in
the value, as long as the other size and value constraints are met.
Character Formatting Options
The
following are the available character formatting options:
With the Numbers Only option, you
may not enter the characters A-Z, a-z, or special characters such as ! , @, or
# , in the segment that uses this value set. You may enter only the
values 0-9, minus signs, plus signs, the radix separator (D), and the group
separator (G) in any segment or parameter that uses this value set. Note also
that your Char format type value set remains Char even without alphabetic
characters, and your values will behave and sort as character values.
Attention: If you want to restrict users from entering a negative sign
for a value set where you do not allow alphabetic characters, you should enter
zero (0) as this value set's minimum value. However, you cannot prevent users
from entering a value that contains the radix character (D).
If you are defining a value set that
uses a validation table, you should set the value in this field to reflect the
characteristics of the values in the value column you specify for your
validation table.
Note: The Numbers Only option cannot be used in Translatable
Independent and Translatable Dependent value sets.
Indicate whether any alphabetic
characters you enter as values for a segment using this value set should
automatically change to uppercase.
If you are defining a value set that
uses a validation table, you should set the value in this field to reflect the
characteristics of the values in the value column you specify for your
validation table.
Note: The Uppercase Only option cannot be used in Translatable
Independent and Translatable Dependent value sets.
Right-justify and Zero-fill Numbers
Indicate whether your flexfield
should automatically right-justify and zero-fill numbers when you enter values
for this value set. This option affects values that include only the characters
0-9, regardless of whether you select the Numbers Only option. This option has
no effect on values that contain alphabetic characters or special characters
such as a period or a hyphen.
For example, if you have a
five-character value set, and you define a value of 7, your flexfield stores and
displays your value as 00007. If you define your flexfield segment to have a
display size less than the maximum size and you want to Right-justify and
Zero-fill Numbers, your flexfield segment may often display only zeroes (your
flexfield segment displays only the number of characters specified by the
display size). In these cases, your users need to scroll through the flexfield
segment to see a meaningful value, thus slowing data entry or inquiries.
Usually you use this option to
ensure that character values that appear to be numbers will be sorted and
appear in order as if they were actually number values (for cross-validation
rules, value security rules, and reporting, for example). You may also use this
option to ensure that numeric-looking values all have the same number of
characters so they line up nicely in reports.
If you set Right-Justify and
Zero-fill Numbers to Yes, you should ensure that the values in this value set
use Right-justify and Zero-fill.
Suggestion: We recommend that you set Right-justify and Zero-fill
Numbers to Yes for value sets you use with the Accounting Flexfield and to No
for most other value sets.
If you are defining a value set that
uses a validation table, you should set the value in this field to reflect the
characteristics of the values in your validation table.
If you set the Right-Justify and
Zero-Fill Numbers flag to Yes, the values in your value columns should also be
right-justified and zero-filled; that is, there should be an exact match in
formatting.
Minimum and Maximum Value Range
The following describes value
ranges.
Enter the minimum value a user can
enter in a segment that uses this value set. Your minimum value may not violate
formatting options such as the maximum value size you specify for this value
set.
You can use the Minimum Value and
Maximum Value fields to define a range of valid values for your value set. Once
you specify a range of values, you cannot define a new valid value that falls
outside this range. The Minimum Value and Maximum Value fields can therefore
allow you to create a value set with a validation type of None (non-validated,
where any value is valid) where the user cannot enter a value outside the
specified range.
For example, you might create a
value set with format type of Number where the user can enter only the values
between 0 and 100. Or, you might create a value set with format type of
Standard Date where the user can enter only dates for a specific year (a range
of 01-JAN-2007 to 31-DEC-2007, for example). Since the minimum and maximum
values enforce these limits, you need not define a value set that contains each
of these individual numbers or dates.
You can define a range of values for
a value set that already contains values. Existing combinations or existing
data that use values outside the valid range are treated as if they contain
expired segment values.
Your minimum or maximum value can
differ depending on your format type. For example, if your format type is Char,
then 1000 is less than 110, but if your format type is Number, 110 is less than
1000. In addition, when you use a Char format type for most platforms (ASCII
platforms), numeric characters are "less" than alphabetic characters
(that is, 9 is less than A), but for some platforms (EBCDIC platforms) numeric
characters are "greater" than alphabetic characters (that is, Z is
less than 0). This window gives you an error message if you specify a larger
minimum value than your maximum value for your platform.
Enter the maximum value a user can
enter in a segment that uses this value set. Your maximum value may not be
longer than the maximum size you specify for this value set.
If you leave this field blank, the
maximum value for this value set is automatically the largest value possible for
your value set.
Examples of Minimum and Maximum Values
If your value set uses Char format,
with Numbers Only and maximum size of 3, then your minimum value is '-99' and
your maximum value is '999'.
If your value set uses Number
format, with maximum size is 5 with precision of 2, then your minimum value is
'-9.99' and your maximum value is ' '99.99' (using the US radix character '.').
