The name of the attribute-defining item is used when specifying this attribute in AQL reports. It also is known as the attribute-defining item, item-ID or a0.
In naming attribute-defining items, keep in mind the following:
Attribute names, since they are item-IDs, can be up to 101 characters long but only the first 24 are significant. Do not use any of the following characters as part of an attribute-defining item attribute name:
AQL delimiters (characters 252 through 255)
The following five System string delimiters: '"\()
Control characters (CTRL+A through CTRL+Z)
The use of AQL delimiters in a file is not permitted. The rest (system string delimiters, control characters, spaces) can be accepted as characters in attribute names or in item-IDs, but are not advised.
The following characters are valid within attribute names:! # $ % & + - . / : ? @ _
As examples, PART#, PART-NO, PART_NO, and PART.NO: are all valid and different attribute names.
Optionally, the file may be created so that it is case sensitive. For example, B and b are treated as different characters. A caveat is that some names, like PART#, are valid in AQL but are invalid FlashBASIC variable names.
Make attribute names as descriptive as possible.
The attribute name should adequately describe the data and how it is handled without the need to look at the actual definition. Consider some typical names:
PART#
NAME
ADDR-1
ADDR-2
COST
PHONE
Make attribute names short.
Try to use shorter names rather than longer ones because:
Attribute-defining items are often typed in AQL sentences and are too long to type customer.address.line.one rather than addr.1.
Attribute names are the default column headings and override the column width if the name is longer than the column width specification.
Attribute-defining items are inexpensive.
It takes very little space to store an attribute-defining item. Create additional attribute-defining items as needed for specialized views of data.
Avoid:
Numeric names for attribute-defining items.
An attribute name of 1099 can later be confusing whether 1099 stands for an item-ID or the attribute name in the sentence, LIST CUSTOMER 1099.
Names of words already used as AQL commands or modifiers, for example description.