Data Model Objects › Attribute Overview › Attribute Length

Attribute Length

• The Length specifies the maximum number of characters or digits allowed for each value of an Attribute, according to the domain.
• Text Attributes have a limit of 4094 for varying-length attribute, 255 for fixed-length attributes.
• Date Attributes have eight characters, including four digits for year (YYYYMMDD). For example, January 1, 1992 becomes 19920101.
• Time Attributes have six characters (HHMMSS). You cannot change the number of characters for date or time.
• Numeric Attributes (actual maximum and minimum precision of arithmetic operations, number of significant digits) depend on the version of the platform, compiler, and DBMS.
• Timestamp Attributes have 26 characters, including four digits for year (YYYY-MM-DD-HH.MM.SS.NNNNNN, where N is a microsecond.)
• BLOB Attributes have a limit of 2 gigabytes.

The Attribute length specified in the ERD is the amount of space reserved for the field in the database. This may be different from the field as it is displayed on a screen. For more information about the Attribute Length and dialect definition, see the online help.

Note: Different DBMS products provide different levels of precision for fractions of a second. Refer to your specific DBMS documentation for more information.