A datatype describes the type of content an attribute holds as its value (numeric, date, string etc). Only datatypes listed here may be used when modeling. In addition to standard modeling datatypes, semantic datatypes are used. A semantic datatype is a datatype that provides some additional meaning to the attribute. This meaning can be used by the automation mechanism for various purposes.
As semantic datatypes map to generic datatypes, they can be conveniently added at a later time, as long as the new type maps to the same base type as the previously used one. This way more semantic datatypes will be created over time, when new automatable features dependent on the new type are identified.
All the datatypes are further mapped to the appropriate data types of the target platform when generating the final implementation.
Available datatypes for modeling
| Type | Description | Base Type |
|---|---|---|
| birthdate | The birthdate of a person. | date |
| boolean | A true/false value. | |
| char | A single character. | string |
| code | A string which contains an identifying code that usually has a descriptive name. The code value itself is usually based on an agreement rather than a technically generated value. | string |
| date | A date with year, month and day. | |
| datetime | The date combined with the time of day. | |
| decimal | A decimal value. Number of decimals are not specified. | real |
| double | A double precision floating-point value. | real |
| An email address. | string | |
| enddate | A date denoting the end of something. | date |
| enddatetime | A date and time denoting the end of something. | datetime |
| eventdate | A date denoting the moment when something has occurred. | date |
| firstname | The first name of a person. | string |
| firstnames | The first names of a person. | string |
| float | A floating-point value. | real |
| hash | A string hashed string. | string |
| hetu | A string compatible with the Finnish Henkilötunnus format. | string |
| int | An integer value. | integer |
| lastname | The last name of a person. | string |
| long | A large integer value. | integer |
| money | A number denoting a monetary value. | real |
| month | The number of a month (1 – 12). | integer |
| name | A descriptive name. | string |
| percentage | A number denoting ta percentage of something. | real |
| short | A small integer value. | integer |
| smartkey | A code-like identifier built from parts where each part has a specific meaning. | string |
| startdate | A date denoting the beginning of something. | date |
| startdatetime | A date and time denoting the beginning of something. | datetime |
| string | A word/string of characters or a short sequence of words/strings of characters. | |
| surrogatekey | An arbitrary number that functions as a purely technical id for data in a source system. | integer |
| text | A long text. | string |
| time | The time of day, usually with hours, minutes and seconds. | |
| timestamp | The moment something has happened, millisecond precision. | datetime |
| url | An URL. | string |
| year | An integer denoting a year. | integer |
