Record Definition Language › RDL Field Type Descriptions › Field Type UN — Undefined Fields

Field Type UN — Undefined Fields

This type is used for fields which fall into none of the other categories. Its chief use is to define fields which cannot readily be compressed (floating point, binary, bit switches, and so on), particularly when types C1, C2 and C3 are already in use.

For example, consider defining a floating point field, and types C1, C2 and C3 are already in use. Defining the floating point field as one of the C types alters the distribution of values in the corresponding character frequency table. Defining a floating point field as a type C has a detrimental effect upon the compression ratio for all other fields defined by type C. To avoid this effect, define the floating point field as type UN. Type UN fields are not compressed but do not grow in length. Processing overhead for type UN fields is minimal.