Data Structure Column Properties

To view or edit a data structure column's properties, double-click its diagram symbol or Browser or list entry. The property sheet tabs and fields listed here are those available by default, before any customization of the interface by you or an administrator.

The General tab contains the following properties:

Property	Description
Name/Code/Comment	Identify the object. The name should clearly convey the object's purpose to non-technical users, while the code, which is used for generating code or scripts, may be abbreviated, and should not normally include spaces. You can optionally add a comment to provide more detailed information about the object. By default the code is generated from the name by applying the naming conventions specified in the model options. To decouple name-code synchronization, click to release the = button to the right of the Code field.
Stereotype	Extends the semantics of the object. You can enter a stereotype directly in this field, or add stereotypes to the list by specifying them in an extension file.
Data type	Specifies the type of the column, such as numeric, alphanumeric, boolean, etc. If you change the type of the transformation process, the data type used by the data structure column will be converted to its equivalent in the new transformation engine. For more information about data types, see Customizing and Extending PowerDesigner > DBMS Definition Files > Script/Data Type Category.
Length	Specifies the maximum length of the data type.
Precision	Specifies the maximum number of places after the decimal point.
Mandatory	Specifies a column that must be assigned a not null value.
Default value	Specifies a default value for the data structure column.
Target object	[data structure column owned by a data output only] Specifies the target object in which the data structure column is loaded. You can use the tools to the right of the list to browse the complete tree of available objects or view the properties of the currently selected object.
Identifier	Specifies the data structure column as an identifier. This is useful when you update the target tables used to create a join.
Keywords	Provide a way of loosely grouping objects through tagging. To enter multiple keywords, separate them with commas.

Data Structure Source Objects Tab

This tab lists the source objects to which the object is attached and is generally automatically propagated and read-only. However, you can add or delete source objects for data structure columns belonging to the following types of steps:

Inputs
Script execution, data query execution, data calculator, data aggregation, and data projection actions
Outputs

To specify a more complex source expression using functions, click the Edit Source Expression tool, in the lower part of the dialog box, to open the Source Expression Editor.

Note: You can also add or delete source objects for the following steps:

Inputs (see Data Inputs (DMM)) – source objects correspond to objects of source data stores linked to a database, an XML document, a web service or a flat file.
Data query executions (see Inserting a Data Query Execution) – source objects originate from the previous steps to which data query executions are linked.