Display Units fields

The Display Units fields in the Measurement Type file define how you want the measurement to appear on screen and in reports.

Examples

You can specify that measurements are to be displayed in:

  • Inches (for example, 14in)

  • Feet and inches (for example, 2ft 2in)

  • Centimetres (for example, 123cm)

  • Metres and centimetres (for example, 1m 23cm)

You can also specify whether you want the measurements displayed in one type of unit or two types of units:

  • In one unit of measure such as only in the Imperial system. For example, 3ft 3in.

  • In a primary system followed by a secondary system, such as the Imperial system followed by the metric system in parenthesis. For example, 3ft 3in (1 m).

Primary Units and Secondary Units fields

The Primary Units and Secondary Units fields are authority fields and contain terms for basic units of measure such as Inch, Centimetre, Millimetre.

Only the Primary Units field is compulsory. If you leave the Secondary Units field blank, your measurements will be displayed only in the primary unit you have specified.

However, when displaying the Measurement Reading, the system can also show it in a secondary measurement system in parentheses following the primary measurement system, e.g. 3ft 3in (1 m).

If your primary unit is Inch, your secondary unit might be Centimetre.

Entering Centimetre as your display unit (whether primary or secondary) will give you a display measurement only in centimetres (for example, 103cm). If you prefer this to be displayed as 1m 3cm, then in the display unit field:

  • Enter Meter on the first row.

  • Enter Centimeter on the second row.

The same would be true of inches or any other unit of measure you might specify. For example if you enter only Inch as the display unit, a measurement of 14 inches will be shown as 14in. If you enter Feet on the first row and Inch on the second row of the display unit field, 14 inches will be displayed as 2ft 2in.

Even if you specify a primary and secondary system for display on screen, the Reporting window offers you to opportunity to override these original settings for each report. Measurement is one of the fields with multiple display variations for reporting, and you can chose to display measurement in the primary system only, secondary system only, or both primary and secondary systems.

Display options

Primary best fit unit

Select this option to display measurements in their primary unit only. For example, if you entered a measurement of 1.24m, it would display as 1.24m instead of 1M 24cm.

Secondary best fit unit

Select this option to display measurements in their secondary unit only.

Show zero value

Select this option if you want to zero measures to be displayed. For example, a temperature of 0°C, a depth of 0m, or in coordinates.

Force zero units

Select this option if you want to units that are zero to be displayed. For example, where you are recording Degrees, Minutes, and Seconds, and one of the units may be zero.

Field details

Field type

Authority field

Location

Measurement Type file > Unit Aspects tab

Internal field names

  • Primary Units: OUTPUT_UNITS

  • Secondary Units: ALT_OUTPUT_UNITS

Searching on this field

Use a Select Statement.

Reporting on this field

This is how to select this field in Reporting.

  • Field (Across the page) reports: Select Primary Units or Secondary Units.

  • Group (Down the page) reports: Expand Primary Units or Secondary Units then select Unit.

You can't sort on this field.