Release 10.1A: OpenEdge Development:
Progress Dynamics Advanced Development

Attribute value table

The ryc_attribute_value table contains these fields:

constant_value — This LOGICAL field is set to YES if the value cannot be modified at any lower level of object definition. Its value is therefore YES if the attribute value is for an object type and the constant_level field of the corresponding attribute is class. Its value is also YES if the attribute value is for a master object and the constant_level field of the corresponding attribute is master. This field simply allows the constant_level to be verified in the attribute_value without having to refer back to the attribute record.
attribute_label — This CHARACTER field is the name of the attribute as defined in the ryc_attribute record. Note that this is the join field used to relate this table to the ryc_attribute table when necessary.

The data_type field in the ryc_attribute table identifies the native data type of the attribute. Depending on that value, the actual attribute value is stored in one and only one of the following six fields; the others are unused. This allows the framework to avoid very frequent conversions back and forth to and from CHARACTER types.

It also avoids globalization issues that can be caused when locale-sensitive values, such as decimals (containing either a comma or decimal point) or dates (with different ways to order the month and day), are converted to CHARACTER strings. The types are as follows:

character_value — Attribute values of type CHARACTER are stored in this field.
integer_value — Attribute values of type INTEGER are stored in this field.
date_value — Attribute values of type DATE are stored in this field.
decimal_value — Attribute values of type DECIMAL are stored in this field.
logical_value — Attribute values of type LOGICAL are stored in this field.
raw_value — Attribute values of type RAW are stored in this field.

The ryc_attribute_value table also contains object IDs that point to the object type of the object with this attribute value, as well as the Product Module of the object. There are also pointers that identify whether this is a class, master, or instance attribute value. These are discussed next.