Working with display formats

You work with display formats in the Enterprise Explorer and the DataWindow editor.

What you do in the Enterprise Explorer

In the Enterprise Explorer, you can:

Create, modify, and delete named display formats

The named display formats are stored in the extended attribute system tables. When you have defined a display format, it can be used by any column of the appropriate datatype in the database.
Assign display formats to columns and remove them from columns

These formats are used by default when you place the column in a DataWindow object in the DataWindow editor.

What you do in the DataWindow editor

In the DataWindow editor, you can:

Accept the default display format assigned to a column in the Enterprise Explorer
Override the default display format with another named format stored in the extended attribute system tables
Create an ad hoc, unnamed format to use with one specific column

Display formats and the extended attribute system tables

When you have placed a column in a DataWindow object and have given it a display format (either the default format from the assignment made in the Enterprise Explorer for the column or a format assigned in the DataWindow editor), there is no longer any link to the named format in the extended attribute system tables.

If the definition of the display format later changes in the extended attribute system tables, the format for the column in a DataWindow object does not change. If you want to use the modified format, you can reapply it to the column in the DataWindow editor.