Field conversions

Learn about field conversions which control how data is displayed to the user.

Overview

All fields have a default conversion, which you can override in certain instances, such as in Reporting.

For example, the default conversion for the Classification file is AU_ASCENDING. This means that when terms are displayed in Classification fields and in reports, the user will see the ascending hierarchy. For example:

Dish, Bonbon/Dish, Candy/Dish, Serving/Serving Vessels/Food Service T&E/04 Tools.

You may wish to override this in a report so that just the term name displays. For example: 

Dish, Bonbon

Authority field conversions

The format for this conversion is:

[AU_CONV,filename*fieldname]

In this conversion, file name is the System ID of the file and fieldname is the internal field name of the field to display.

Example authority field conversions

Conversion Description
[AU_CONV,CLASSIFICATION] The file name indicates that the default Display field should be used. The default Display field is recorded in the Authority Parameter File. For Classification, this is usually AU_ASCENDING or AU_DESCENDING (i.e. the ascending or descending hierarchy).
[AU_CONV,CLASSIFICATION*AU_NAME] When applied to a field controlled by the Classification file, this conversion will display the Name field from the Classification record.
[AU_CONV,PLACE*AU_SHORT_NAME] When applied to a field controlled by the Place file, this conversion will display the Short Name field from the Place record, e.g. 'NSW' instead of 'New South Wales'.
[AU_CONV,PERSON*USER_SYM_17] When applied to a field controlled by the Person file, this conversion will display the result of USER_SYM_17. Note that USER_SYM_17 must be a symbolic configured for the Person file.

Person field conversions

PE_SYM_NAME

This function combines fields from the Person file and will display only the first preferred name.

The format for the PE_SYM_NAME function is:

[AU_CONV,PERSON*PE_SYM_NAME_fieldcodes]

In this conversion, fieldcodes refers to any of the following codes:

Field code Description Example
F First names Jennifer Anne
L Last name Braithwaite
K Known as Jenny
N Nationality (first only) Australian
M Nationality, with multiple if they exist Australian; Greek
C Nationality city Melbourne
Y Life years b.1966
D Life dates 02 Mar 1966-
I Initials J A
T Title Ms

If none of the field conversions can supply the desired affect, you may wish to consider creating a User Symbolic field, using the PERSON.NAME subroutine.

Date field conversions

There are two types of conversions available for date fields:

  • Precise dates

  • Imprecise dates

Precise dates

Apply the conversion [UT_CONV_DATE] to have the date display exactly as it does in the field.

The format is:

[UT_CONV_DATE,yc.opt!month.format!DOW.format]

Part of conversion Required or optional? Explanation
yc.opt Optional

Indicates the number of digits in the year. 0 (zero) indicates that no year is output. The default value is 4.

This value can be followed by a character that separates the day, month and year. For example, [UT_CONV_DATE,2/] will result in 20/Feb/01.

If no character is specified, a space (the default) will be used.
month.format Optional

Allows you to specify how completely the month is displayed.

  • SL displays the short name for the month. For example, Oct.

  • SU displays the short name for the month in upper case. For example, OCT.

  • LL displays the full month name. For example, October.

  • LU displays the full month name in upper case. For example, OCTOBER.

  • NUM displays the month as a number. For example, 10.
DOW.format Optional

DOW (Date of Week) format.

  • S for short format. For example, Mon, Tues.

  • L for long format. For example, Monday Tuesday.

Imprecise dates

Apply the conversion [DC_CONV_DATE_DISPLAY] to imprecise date fields for the date to display exactly as it does in the Vernon CMS field.