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1. Expand the Reporting Object in which you want to add a virtual field.
2. In the browser, select the Define folder and click the Open button in the Reporting Object window. The Define Tool dialog box opens and displays any existing defines.
3. In the browser, click New Define.

   In Developer Studio, right-click the Define folder and select Open in the Reporting Object window.

   The following dialog box opens (this dialog looks slightly different in the browser).

   

4. In the Field box, type the name of the virtual field.
5. In the Format box, type a field format.

   For detailed information about field formats, see Field Formats.

6. In the input box below the field name, type the expression that defines the virtual field.
7. Click OK to save the virtual field, close the Field Creator, and return to the Define Tool.
8. In the Define Tool window, click OK to close the tool.

   You return to the Reporting Object window. The virtual field now appears in the field list when a user accesses this Reporting Object.

If you have finished working with the components of the Reporting Object, remember to click Done in the Reporting Object window to save the changes.

Note:

• In the browser, syntax and error checking are not performed on the commands you enter until the Reporting Object is executed. In Developer Studio, you can click the Check button to check your syntax. If a DEFINE field is created with invalid syntax, it will not display for the user in the Report Assistant or Graph Assistant.
• In the browser, the field list shown in the Reporting Objects DEFINE tool is not updated to display new virtual fields until you exit from the DEFINE tool and reopen it. If you are creating a virtual field (DEFINE statement) that uses a previously created virtual field in the expression, you must save the first virtual field before creating the second one. To save the first virtual field, exit from the DEFINE tool by clicking the OK button. Reopen the DEFINE tool to create the second field. Alternatively, you can type in the name of the first virtual field in the expression instead of selecting it from the field list. In this case, you do not need to exit and reopen the DEFINE tool.
• Since every procedure creates a new session on the Reporting Server when it is run, the duration of your connection is always limited to a single procedure. Therefore, any Define issued at the beginning of a procedure will be in effect only for those report requests that are called in the same procedure.

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1. Expand the Reporting Object in which you want to edit a virtual field.
2. Right-click the Define folder and select Open in the Reporting Object window.
   • In the browser, the Define Tool dialog box opens and displays any existing virtual fields. Select the virtual field you want to edit and click Edit Define.
   • In Developer Studio, from the Defined Fields tab, select the virtual field you want to edit.

   The Field Creator dialog box opens, displaying the expression for the selected field.

3. Make changes to the field expression or format and click OK.

   The Field Creator dialog box closes and you return to the Define Tool.

4. Click OK to exit the Define Tool.

   WebFOCUS saves the change and returns you to the Reporting Object window.

If you have finished working with the components of the Reporting Object, remember to click Done in the Reporting Object window to save the changes.

Note: Syntax and error checking are not performed on the commands you enter until the Reporting Object is executed.

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1. Expand the Reporting Object in which you want to delete a virtual field.
2. In the browser, select the Define folder and in the Reporting Object window, click the Open button.

   In Developer Studio, right-click the Define folder and in the Reporting Object window, select Open.

   In the browser, the Define Tool dialog box opens and displays any existing virtual fields.

3. Delete your virtual field:
   1. In the browser, select the virtual field that you want to delete and click the Delete Define button.

      In Developer Studio, click the Defined Fields tab and select the virtual field you want to delete. Click the Delete button.

   2. Click OK to verify the deletion.

   WebFOCUS deletes the virtual field and returns you to the Reporting Object window.

   If you have finished working with the components of the Reporting Object, remember to click Done in the Reporting Object window to save the changes.

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How to: Specify a Field Format

You must specify a field format for every virtual field you create. You assign a format based on the values that the virtual field will hold. The field format specifies the following information:

• The field type, which indicates whether the field value will contain an alphanumeric, numeric, or date value.
• The field length, which determines the maximum number of positions an alphanumeric or numeric field value can contain.
• Options that affect how a numeric or date field value will appear in reports.

You can specify the format type, length, and appropriate display options in the Format input box in the Define Tool dialog box, or you can use the Change format dialog box to assist you in defining the field format as shown in the following image. The following procedure describes how to use this dialog box.

In this dialog box, you can select format attributes from list boxes instead of typing the required syntax.

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There are three types of field formats: alphanumeric, numeric, and date.

• Alphanumeric. Assigns the Alphanumeric format to values composed of any combination of alphabetic, numeric, or special characters, up to 256 characters in length. You can concatenate alphanumeric values, but you cannot perform mathematical operations on an alphanumeric field, even if the field value is composed of numeric characters.

  Note: If you define an alphanumeric DEFINE field to a constant value without enclosing the value within single quotation marks, WebFOCUS does not list the field in the Field List window for Report Assistant, Graph Assistant, and Advanced Graph Assistant.

• Numeric. Assigns a numeric format to values composed of the digits 0 through 9 and a minus sign or a decimal point. You can perform mathematical operations on numeric values. There are four specific numeric formats:

  Format	Description
  Integer (I)	Integer format can consist of a maximum of 11 positions, counting the digits and an optional minus sign. Use this format for whole number values; the value cannot contain a decimal point.
  Floating Point (F)	Floating Point format can consist of a maximum of 9 positions, counting the digits, a minus sign, and a decimal point. Use this format for whole numbers or fractional values. For larger numbers, use the Decimal or Packed formats.
  Decimal (D) and Packed (P)	Decimal and Packed formats can consist of a maximum of 20 positions, counting the digits, minus sign, and a decimal point. Use this format for whole numbers or fractional values that are larger than the maximum value for a Floating Point value.

  For numeric formats, you can also specify how the field will appear in reports. Note that the characters added by these display options count toward the maximum number of positions a field can hold. For more information on numeric format options, see the Describing Data With WebFOCUS Language manual.

• Date. Assigns the Date format to values that represent a date or date component. You can add or subtract values in the date format.

  For Date formats, you can specify how the values that represent a date or date component are stored and displayed. For more information on date format options, see the Describing Data With WebFOCUS Language manual.