Home > Data Modeler Dialog Boxes > Column Properties
This dialog box displays the properties of a table column, which is part of the Relational Models.
General
Name: Name of the column.
Long Name: Long name in the format: table-name.column-name
Engineer: Controls whether the column will be considered during reverse engineering operations. If this option is disabled, this column and its properties are not considered when the table is reverse engineered into the associated entity in the logical model.
Allow Nulls: Controls whether null values are allowed for the column. If this option is enabled, a non-null value is mandatory.
Table: Name of the table with which the column is associated.
Datatype: Enables you to specify a domain, logical type, distinct type, collection type, or structured type as the data type of the column. You can click the ellipsis (...) button to specify further details for the selected type.
Type: Manual, System, Derived, or Aggregate.
Computed: Indicates whether the column is a virtual column. A virtual column is not stored on disk. Rather, the database derives the values in a virtual column on demand by computing a set of expressions or functions.
Column Expression: For a derived or aggregate type, the expression for computing the value in the column.
Scope: For a structured type with Reference enabled, limits the scope by specifying the table in which the type is implemented.
Type Substitution: For a structured type with Reference disabled, or for a structured type applied to an entity, controls whether a substitutional structured type is generated in the DDL.
Default and Constraint
Constraint Name: Name of the constraint.
Uses Default: Controls whether the default value is used for this column.
Default Value: Default value for the column.
Use Domain Constraints: Controls whether the properties defined in Domains Administration for the associated domain are used. If this option is disabled, you can use the remaining fields to specify the database type for the constraint and the ranges or a list of values.
Constraint: Enables you to specify a constraint for one or more types of databases.
Ranges: Enables you to specify one or more value ranges for the column.
Value List: Enables you to specify a list of valid values for the column.
Auto Increment
Specifies information that will be used to create a sequence for automatically incrementing values in this column when rows are inserted into the table.
Start with: Starting value of the sequence.
Increment by: Interval between successive numbers in the sequence.
Min value: Lowest possible value for the sequence. The default is 1 for an ascending sequence and -(10^26) for a descending sequence.
Max value: Highest possible value for the sequence. The default is 10^27 for an ascending sequence and -1 for a descending sequence.
Cycle: Indicates whether the sequence "wraps around" to reuse numbers after reaching its maximum value (for an ascending sequence) or its minimum value (for a descending sequence). If cycling of values is not enabled, the sequence cannot generate more values after reaching its maximum or minimum value.
Disable Cache and Cache: If Disable Cache is checked, sequence values are not preallocated in cache. If Disable Cache is checked, sequence values are preallocated in cache, which can improve application performance; and Cache size indicates the number of sequence values preallocated in cache.
Order: Indicates whether sequence numbers are generated in the order in which they are requested. If no ordering is specified, sequence numbers are not guaranteed to be in the order in which they were requested.
Sequence Name: Name of the sequence. Must be unique within the database schema. If a sequence with the same name already exists in the physical model, the existing sequence is used.
Trigger Name: The name for the before-insert trigger that will be automatically created if Generate Trigger is enabled. This trigger uses the sequence to generate a new value for the primary key when a row is inserted. If a trigger with the same name already exists in the physical model, the existing trigger is used
Generate Trigger: Controls whether or not to generate the trigger automatically.
Security
Specifies any relevant security-related properties for the column: whether it contains personally identifiable information (PII), contains sensitive information, or should be masked when displayed.
Permitted Subtypes
For a structured data type, lists all subtypes for the attribute, and lets you specify whether each is permitted for the attribute.
Comments in RDBMS
Comment text to be included in database objects that are generated based on this modeling object.
Comments, Notes, Measurements, Change Requests, Responsible Parties, Documents, Summary