TDS properties for global attribute decimal types

The TDS Format properties described here apply to:

Field Identification

Property Type Meaning
Tag String Specify the value that is used to identify the object in a message bit stream.

If the object is simple and the Data Element Separation property of the complex type or types in which the object is a child is Tagged Delimited, Tagged Fixed Length, or Tagged Encoded Length, this property must contain a non-empty value.

If the object is a complex element and the Data Element Separation property of its parent is Tagged Delimited, Tagged Fixed Length, or Tagged Encoded Length, the property can contain an empty value.

The value for this property must be unique for every element in the message set; that is, no two elements in the message set can contain the same value for this property.

Data Pattern String Specify the regular expression that is to be used by the parser to identify the data in the message to be assigned to the object. This property is used when the Data Element Separation method has been set to Use Data Pattern in the complex type. See Regular expression syntax for further details.

Physical representation

Property Type Meaning
Physical Type Enumerated type The Physical Type can be set to Characters and Messaging Standard Alternate. This property tells the TDS parser whether the data in the message is the normal TDS character format, or is another alternate form that has a specific messaging standard such as TLOG. The available values and the default value depend on both Messaging Standard and the logical type.

If the logical type of the object is dateTime, float, or integer, this property is disabled.

If the Messaging Standard property (at the message set level) is set to other than TLOG , the Physical Type property is disabled.

If the Messaging Standard property (at the message set level) is set to TLOG and the logical type of the object is set to a Boolean, decimal or string type, the Physical Type property can be set to Characters or Messaging Standard Alternate.

Length Integer Specify the expected length of the object in characters (except in the case of binary objects, in which case the length value represents the length in bytes).

This property applies to simple objects and to complex elements with a base type.

If you give this property a value of 0, the Length Reference property is checked for a value.

If you set the Data Element Separator property for the type to Fixed Length or Fixed Length AL3, either this property, or the Length Reference property, must contain a value that is not 0 or NULL.

Justification Enumerated type

Specify the justification of the object where the data being written or parsed is less than the fixed length value. This property is only used when a value is output as a fixed length string.

Select one of the following values from the drop-down list:

  • Not Applicable
  • Left Justify
  • Right Justify
Padding Character String Specify the padding character that is to be inserted or interpreted on the writing or parsing of a fixed length object where the data is less than the fixed length value. This property is only used when a value is output as a fixed length string.

Set this character in one of the following ways:

  • Select NUL, '0', or SPACE from the drop-down list.
  • Enter a character between quotes, for example "c" or 'c', where c is any alphanumeric character.
  • Enter a hexadecimal character code in the form 0xYY, where YY is a hexadecimal value.
  • Enter a Unicode value in the form U+xxxx, where xxxx is a Unicode value specified in hexadecimal. The maximum length of the string that you can enter is 10.

The choice of which of these padding character forms is used for an MRM element depends on the padding character required and whether the padding character is to be subject to data conversion.

In most cases, the specification of a padding character is sufficient, and when this padding character is used, it is converted to the target code page of the output MRM message that is being generated.

If a padding character is required that cannot easily be entered in the padding character field, the Unicode mnemonic format can be used to specify the required character. When used, this Unicode value is also converted to the target code page of the MRM message that is being generated.

If a padding character is required that is not subject to data conversion, the hexadecimal format can be used. This gives the option of specifying a padding character that is inserted directly into the output message. If this format is used, you must ensure that this hexadecimal value is valid for the code page of any output messages that are created using these MRM definitions.

If you are converting a message from one code page to another, you must ensure that the converted value of the padding character is valid for this code page. For example, when converting from ASCII to code page 500, if you have specified the numeric 8 as your padding character, this is converted from 0x08 to 0x15, the ASCII and EBCDIC representations of 'back space'.

There is a currently a restriction that the value of your padding character must not be greater than U+007F. Note that if you enter a Unicode mnemonic or numeric value, it is considered to be the character that is represented by that number in UTF-8.

Numeric representation

Property Type Meaning
Virtual Decimal Point Button and Integer Specify a nonzero integer representing the position of an implied decimal point within a number, or specify 0 (zero, the default) to use the formatting of Float or Decimal numbers as specified by the Precision property.

If you specify a positive integer, the position of the decimal point is moved left from the right hand side of the number. For example, if you specify 3, the decimal value 1234 represents 1.234

If you specify a negative integer, the position of the decimal point is moved right from the right hand side of the number. For example, if you specify -3, the decimal value 1234 represents 1234000

Precision Button and Integer This value is used if the Virtual Decimal Point property value is 0, indicating that the decimal point is present in the data. It deals with truncation, and specifies the number of digits that should follow the decimal point.

Either specify a number of digits:

  • If you set Precision to 0, data is truncated so that the fractional part is lost. For example, the value 123.45 is truncated to 123.
  • If you set Precision to a number less than the number of fractional digits, data is truncated. For example, the value 123.4567 is truncated to 123.45 if you set Precision to 2.
  • If you set Precision to a number greater than the number of fractional digits, the value is padded with extra zeros. For example, the value 12.345 is padded to 12.34500 if you set Precision to 5.

Or select one of the following from the drop-down list:

  • All Significant Digits (the default): all the significant digits are written to the output bit stream, and there is no decimal separator if there are no fractional digits.
  • Explicit Decimal Separator: all the significant digits are written to the output bit stream and the decimal separator is always included, even if there are no fractional digits. The decimal separator must be present in the input bit stream, even if no fractional digits are present.
Sign Orientation Enumerated type Select the value that indicates the positioning of a sign symbol within a numeric value, from the drop-down list:
  • None
  • Leading
  • Trailing

If you set the value for this property to None, this is interpreted as having no sign, and an exception is thrown if a negative number is processed (on either input or output).

If you set the value for this property Leading, this indicates that the sign is positioned ahead of the number, for example, -1234. Similarly, if you set this property to Trailing, the sign follows the number, for example, 1234-.

If there is no explicit sign set, the number is assumed to be positive.

Positive Sign String Specify the value that represents the positive symbol. If no value is set, "+" is assumed. The positive sign is not written when creating an output message, it is only used to recognize the positive sign when parsing a message bit stream.
Negative Sign String Specify the value that represents the negative symbol. If no value is set, "-" is assumed.
Related concepts
Message modeling
The message model
TDS format: Relationship to the logical model
Related tasks
Developing message models
Working with message model objects
Related reference
Message model reference information
Message model object properties
Logical properties for message model objects
Custom Wire Format physical properties for message model objects
XML wire format physical properties for message model objects
TDS format physical properties for message model objects
Documentation properties for all message set objects
Message model object properties by object
Additional MRM domain information