Describes various entry characteristics of each column. Each time you set this property, you describe the data type for the next column in the grid, starting with the first. Setting this property to spaces clears the previously specified data types.
A data type specification contains two components. The first is a single character that describes the set of legal characters that the user may type in this column. The set of possible values is:
| Character | Description | Characters Allowed |
|---|---|---|
| X | Alphanumeric | All characters |
| U | Uppercase alphanumeric | All characters — automatically converted to uppercase |
| L | Lowercase alphanumeric | All characters — automatically converted to lowercase |
| 9 | Number | Digits, local decimal point, sign, space |
| Z | Edited number | Digits, sign, period, comma, local currency symbol, $, *, /, %, space |
| I | Integer | Digits, sign, space |
| P | Positive integer | Digits, space |
| D | Date | Digits, /, hyphen |
| E | European Date | Digits, /, hyphen, period |
You may specify the data type character in either upper or lower case. After the data type character, you may specify the maximum number of characters that may be entered in this column. This value is specified in parentheses. Two values have special meanings:
When a cell may contain more text than it can display, the cell scrolls horizontally in a fashion similar to entry fields.
You may omit either part of the specification. If the data type part is omitted, it defaults to X (all characters allowed). If the size is omitted, it defaults to 0 (match the size of the column). These defaults also apply to columns for which DATA-TYPES has not been specified.
For example, to specify that a column should allow 30 uppercase characters, specify U(30). To create a column that allows only digits for the width of the column, use P(0), or just P.