<columns>

<columns> is a special operation that retrieves column information from a table.

Description

The <columns> operation can retrieve the following information about columns in a table:

  • Column name
  • Column label
  • Origin
  • Data type
  • K type
  • Fixed position indicator - 1 if it is fixed, 0 if it isn't
  • Column width
  • Column is indexed? - 0 for no, 1 for yes
  • Uppercase or lower case
  • Column format
  • Column description metadata
  • Total (i.e., the total of a column in a cross-tabulation)

Syntax

<columns/>

Attributes

full
Specifies whether metadata for all columns in the table should be returned or only those visible according to the current <colord> of the table.

0 shows data only for those columns in the current <colord> (default), 1 returns data for all columns in the table.

crosstype
Specifies which type the labels column should be in the table returned by <columns/>.

The default is a for text. Also accepts i and f for integer and floating point respectively.

Useful for extracting the columns breaks from a cross-tabulation.

(Available as of prod-9)

totaltype
Specifies which type the Total column should be in the table returned by <columns/>.

The default is a for text. Also accepts i and f for integer and floating point respectively. Useful for extracting the column headings (totals) from a cross-tabulation.

(Available as of prod-9)

title
Accepts arbitrary text that overrides the title of the table returned by <columns/>.
sdesc
Accepts arbitrary text that overrides the short descriptions of the table returned by <columns/>.
ldesc
Accepts arbitrary text that overrides the long description of the table returned by <columns/>.

Example

<base table="pub.demo.retail.item"/>
<columns/>