Data Modeling › Data Model › Specifying Object Attributes

Specifying Object Attributes

Using the Define Objects panel, you must specify an object attribute for each new object. You can view a list of the available object attributes by typing ? in the object attribute field. Object attributes enable CA 2E to take design defaults.

• For files, the object attribute specifies a file type, which will be one of the following in this tutorial:
  • Reference file (REF) for relatively static master files
  • Capture file (CPT) for transaction files

  In the example, COURSE and RACE are Reference (REF) files.

• For fields, the object attribute specifies a data type. (Another term for data type is field type.) For example, Course code is of type CDE, and Course name is of type TXT.

  The data type causes CA 2E to automatically assign default characteristics to a field; for example, length and display format. You can override these defaults later.

  In this tutorial you will use the following data types:

  CDE—Alphanumeric code field

  TXT—Descriptive text

  VAL—Monetary value

  DT#—ISO date

  TM#—ISO time

  STS—Status

  QTY—Quantity

  NBR—Pure numeric field value

  Type the object attributes as shown. Use the Tab key or Field Exit key to advance to another field or line.

  

  Press Enter when you have typed all object attributes.

  If all the object attributes you specified were valid,CA 2E automatically exits the Define Objects panel and returns to the Edit Database Relations panel.