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About choosing a field type

When you define a field, you select a field type based on the kind of information the field will contain. The field type determines what kind of data can be entered and what kinds of operations FileMaker Pro can perform with the data.

FileMaker Pro uses the field type to interpret the data for tasks like sorting records and performing calculations. For example, if you create a text field and enter numbers, you can sort the data only in alphabetical order. (The first character sorts, then the second, so that 11 sorts before 2.) You must use a number field, or a calculation or summary field with a numeric result, to sort data in numerical order.

Important  Be sure to use a date field (instead of a text or number field) to store dates. To avoid confusion when using dates in FileMaker Pro, always use four-digit years. See Defining field validation and Conversion of dates with two-digit years.

You select the field type in the Fields tab of the Manage Database dialog box. To select the field type in Table View, right-click the column heading, choose Field > Field Type > and select one of the options for Field Type.

 

Select this type	If the field data will be
Text	Up to approximately 2 GB of letters, symbols, and/or numbers used as text per field repetition, limited by available RAM and disk space. Indexes nominally based on the first 100 characters of each word or value. Text fields may contain carriage returns. See About text fields.
Number	Values up to 800 digits or other characters, and the negative values of the same range. Index is based on the first 400 significant digits. Number fields can also contain Boolean values, to indicate, for example, true, false, yes, and no. Number fields can't contain carriage returns. See About number fields.
Date	Dates only. Gregorian calendar with a range of 1/1/0001...12/31/4000. Month, day, and year order is based on system settings when the file is created. See About date fields.
Time	Times only. A time field can contain the hours, minutes, and seconds portion of a time. See About time fields.
Timestamp	Dates and times together to reference a fixed point in calendar time. For example, 10/25/2014 2:39:46 AM. See About timestamp fields.
Container	A file of any type, such as a picture, a PDF, or a multimedia file. You can set up storage and display options for the field. You can reference container fields in calculations and summary fields. You can't find or sort records based on container fields, but you can define text fields to describe or identify them. Then, you can find or sort records based on the description or identifying number in the text field. Files in container fields can be embedded, stored as a reference, or stored externally. See About container fields.
Calculation	The result of a calculation formula that uses field values from the current record or related records. The result can be one of these types of data: text, number, date, time, timestamp, or container. See Defining calculation fields.
Summary	A value that’s produced by summarizing field values from more than one record in the same table. See Defining summary fields.

Notes

•	Any field type except for summary can store a global value.

•	In addition to defining a field and selecting its field type, you can create repeating fields, global fields, and supplemental fields.

•	If a field uses system formats to display data, FileMaker WebDirect uses the default system formats for the location in which the database file was created. See Formatting and setting up field objects in Layout mode.

Related topics 

About defining database fields

Changing field types

Formatting and setting up field objects in Layout mode