Column Properties Descriptions

Option

Description

Name

The name is a trimmed and unique identifier for the column. It is used as the display name for the column in the user interface.

DataType

The type of the values in the column. The data type of a column cannot be changed directly. However, by replacing the data table with itself and by adding a transformation step it is possible to change the data type of a column in an analysis.

ExternalName

The name of the column in the original data source or view. The purpose of this property is to allow column matching for linked data and add/replace data operations.

ExternalId

The globally unique id of the column, if available from the data source. Available for many columns imported via information links, but not all. The property is invalid if the column has no external id.

For data connections the external ID contains both the name of the original column in the database and the name of the original data table in the database.

ColumnType

The type of column.

The following are the mutually exclusive column types:

None - no column type defined.

Imported - a standard column opened from a file, the clipboard, a data connection or from an information link.

Calculated - a column created using the Add Calculated Column tool.

Binned - a column created from another column using the Add Binned Column tool.

Frozen - a Calculated/Binned/Tags/Result column that has been frozen and behaves like an imported column.

Result - an output result from a calculation such as a clustering.

Tags - a column displaying the used tags of a tag collection.

Mask - a temporary column created using the Edit > Marked rows > Filter to command. This command creates a column with information of whether or not a column was filtered to, the last time the command was applied. There can only be one mask column in each data table.

Hierarchy - a predefined hierarchy set up using the Add Hierarchy tool.

IsValid

True if the column expression is valid. The property itself is valid only for calculated and binned columns, and the property value is false if there is a dangling reference in the column expression.

Expression

For calculated columns only. Displays the expression used to calculate the column.

DerivedExpression

For calculated columns only. Displays the expression used to calculate the column after the pre-processor values have been evaluated.

Origin

A text string that describes where the column comes from. Typically set by a data source, or by a tool for a result column.

Description

A description of the column entered by the user as an annotation.

LinkTemplate

A link template used to create links to a website from the values in a table. For example, the link template can be "http://www.{$}.com", where "{$}" represents the data value from the column.

DefaultContinuousColorScheme

The name of the default continuous color scheme that will be used when continuous coloring is applied to this column. If no color scheme is specified, or if the specified color scheme is not available, the Spotfire Continuous color scheme will be used.

DefaultCategoricalColorScheme

The name of the default categorical color scheme that will be used when categorical coloring is applied to this column. If no color scheme is specified, or the specified color scheme is not available, the Spotfire Categorical color scheme will be used.

ContentType

Each column may have a specified content type. Renderers use this property as input to know what to display. Use the form toplevel/subtype, for example, text/plain or image/jpg.

For Geometry columns the content type should be set to application/x-wkb if you want to show the geometry information as images.

If you are using Spotfire to display chemical structures from an SDFile then the content type should be set to chemical/x-mdl-molfile for the molfile column.

Note: Do not use a space when specifying the content type.

Keywords

Keywords defined on the column element can be used when searching for columns with the following syntax: Keywords:<desired keyword>. For example, Keywords:Sales.

GeocodingType

Geocoding properties are used when a column can be used to position geographical data on a map. This property specifies the type of geocoding information contained in the column, such as State or City.

GeocodingRepresentation

Geocoding properties are used when a column can be used to position geographical data on a map. This property specifies how the geocoding information contained in the column is represented. This can be a language code such as en-us or a standard identifier such as ISO3166-2:us.

GeocodingHierarchyName

Geocoding properties are used when a column can be used to position geographical data on a map. This property specifies the name of the geocoding hierarchy that the column belongs to.