Field Attributes

Various attributes of a field in a template can be modified using Field Attribute dialog. The dialog allows you to browse and edit attributes such as data generation attributes, and scrambling attributes for a selected field. The dialog can be opened by selecting a field in the Template Editor or Field-Mapping dialog, and then clicking on the Field Attribute button Field attribute icon image.

Field attribute dialog
Field attribute dialog image

Use attributes

Use attributes are used to control the characteristics of how a field is displayed. The following table describes the associated use attributes:
Table 1. Use attributes
Use attribute Description
Field heading Edit this attribute to change what is displayed in the field heading.
Field output width Edit this attribute to change the width of the field. Note: This attribute is only applicable when you are using File Manager® editor on the host.
Leading zeros Show leading zeros if the value is numeric.
Length field Select this check box to specify if the selected field is the segment length and whether it is inclusive or exclusive. This attribute is only available when editing segmented templates and the selected field is less than 4 bytes in length.

Date/Time Attributes

The Date/Time Attributes dialog is used to specify the date/time characteristics of a field. This dialog can be entered by clicking on the Type column for a field in the File Manager Template Editor.

Date/Time attributes dialog

The following table describes the associated Date/Time attributes:
Table 2. Date/Time attributes
Date/Time attribute Description
DT Select this box to indicate that this is a Date/Time field. Once this box is selected the other attribute fields will be modifiable.
Internal Format Enter a value that defines the format used to store the date/time in the field. The format value can be a string containing picture characters supported by the Language Environment date and time callable services. Also one of the following formats supported by File Manager can be entered:

CENTSECS - Time of day in hundredths of seconds

CBLDATE - COBOL date (the number of days since 31

CYYDDD - Julian date with C as the century indicator (0 = 1900s, 1 = 2000s)

LILDATE - Lilian date (the number of days since 14 October 1582)

LILTIME - Date and time stored as the number of seconds since 00:00:00 14 October 1582

MICSECS - Time of day in millionths of seconds

MILLSECS - Time of day in thousandths of seconds

STCK - Date and time stored as a TOD clock value

STCKE - Date and time stored as an extended TOD clock value

Internal Type Enter a data type value which overrides the data type defined for the field in the template. This is used when the template data type is not appropriate for processing date/time values. For example a field is defined in the template as alphanumeric. The field is used to store microsecond time values so the data type can be overridden and set to BI (binary) to enable correct processing of the time value.
Output Format Enter a value that defines the format used to display the date/time. The format is specified as a string containing picture characters supported by the Language Environment date and time callable services. For example to display a date value as a string showing a 3 character day-of-week, a 3 character month, 2 digits for the day of the month, and 4 digits for the year you could specify the format string as:

Www Mmm DD, YYYY

Create/Modify Base Date Enter a date value to be used when creating new data for this field. You enter a date value in the output format defined for this field.

If you leave this field blank the date at the time the data is created will be used to populate the field.

Create/Modify Day Adjustment Enter a value to increment or decrement the day value in the base date. The value should consist of integers optionally preceded by the plus (+) or minus (-) character. The plus character indicates the day value should be incremented. The minus character indicates the day value should be decremented. If a plus or minus character is not specified a plus is assumed.

The increment or decrement value is applied to the day value stored in the field for the previous record. For example, a value of -1 indicates that each subsequent record should have a date value one day earlier than the date value stored in the previous record.

Create/Modify Month Adjustment Enter a value to increment or decrement the month value in the base date. The value should consist of integers optionally preceded by the plus (+) or minus (-) character. The plus character indicates the month value should be incremented. The minus character indicates the month value should be decremented. If a plus or minus character is not specified a plus is assumed.

The increment or decrement value is applied to the month value stored in the field for the previous record. For example, a value of +1 indicates that each subsequent record should have a date value one month later than the date value stored in the previous record.

Create/Modify Year Adjustment Enter a value to increment or decrement the year value in the base date. The value should consist of integers optionally preceded by the plus (+) or minus (-) character. The plus character indicates the year value should be incremented. The minus character indicates the year value should be decremented. If a plus or minus character is not specified a plus is assumed.

The increment or decrement value is applied to the year value stored in the field for the previous record. For example, a value of -1 indicates that each subsequent record should have a date value one year earlier than the date value stored in the previous record.

Scrambling Random Select this box to have File Manager perform random scrambling when copying values into this date/time field. For random scrambling the same input value will produce different output values on subsequent invocations.

If range start and end values are specified and the Random box is not selected File Manager performs repeatable scrambling for this date/time field. Repeatable scrambling means the same input value will produce the same output value on subsequent invocations.

For both random and repeatable scrambling, the start and end values define the range of acceptable date/time values that File Manager can store in this field.

Scrambling Range Start You must enter a date/time value that is the start of a range of scrambled values that can be stored in this field when copying data into this data set. You enter the date/time value in the output format defined for this field.
Scrambling Range End You must enter a date/time value that is the end of a range of scrambled values that can be stored in this field when copying data into this data set. You enter the date/time value in the output format defined for this field.

Data generation attributes

Data generation attributes, also known as create attributes, are used to control the behavior of data set generation utilities. The following table describes the associated data generation attributes:

Table 3. Data generation attributes
Data generation attribute Field type Description
Filler Alphanumeric Specifies an alphanumeric value that is to be placed in each byte of the field before any other operation during the construction of a field.
Action Alphanumeric Specifies how the contents of a field are to be varied for each record.
Start character Alphanumeric Specifies an alphanumeric starting character to be used when specifying an IBM-supplied pattern (AL, AN, or CO) or user-supplied pattern (except for RO, WV, and FX).
Generation pattern Alphanumeric An alphanumeric pattern that is used to generate data for a given field. This pattern can be user-specified or an IBM® supplied pattern.
Option to repeat the pattern Alphanumeric Use when a user-specified pattern is shorter than the field length and the pattern should be repeated to fill the entire field.
Start value Numeric Specifies the initial numeric value that you want a field to contain, before being adjusted by the increment you specify.
End value Numeric Specifies the maximum value (if the increment is a positive number) or minimum value (if the increment is a negative number) you want a field to contain.
Increment value Numeric Specifies a positive or negative number by which you want the value in the field adjusted for each record (or cycle of records).
Cycle count Numeric Specifies the number of output records that are to be generated before the increment value is applied to the field value.

Scrambling attributes

File Manager provides the facility to enable you to create test data based upon production data, but with the ability to change the values of certain fields that may contain sensitive information. This functionality is known as field scrambling, and applies to the Copy and DB2 Copy/Import/Export wizards. Scrambling attributes are used to define the fields and values that you would like to scramble. The following table describes the associated scrambling attributes.
Table 4. Scrambling attributes for alphanumeric fields
Scrambling Type Field type Attribute Description
None N/A N/A No scrambling options are defined.
Random / Repeatable Alphanumeric Provide values for the output field Selecting this option will allow you to define specific output field values to be scrambled.
Provide output values from data set Output field start column The output field start column that is defined here determines the location of the value that will be repeated or randomly selected.
Values data set A data set from which records will be randomly selected or repeated.
Provide output values from list Enter an alphanumeric list of values from which one will be repeated or randomly selected during a copy operation.
Translate Alphanumeric Input field start column Defines the start location of the input field value in the value data set and is used when the translate process is run during a copy operation to match the input field with a value on the value data set.
Output field start column Defines the start location of the output field value in the value data set and is used if an input field value is matched on the value data set. If this occurs, the corresponding output value is used.
Values data set A data set from which records will be randomly selected or repeated.
Exit Alphanumeric Program name The name of a scrambling exit program to be used.1
Parameters Enter parameters to be passed to the exit program.
Table 5. Scrambling attributes for numeric fields
Scrambling Type Field type Attribute Description
None N/A N/A No scrambling options are defined.
Random / Repeatable Numeric Determined based on scramble type Select this option if you do not want to specify output field values to be scrambled.
Random / Repeatable Numeric Provide values for the output field Selecting this option will allow you to define output field values.
Provide output values from data set Output field start column The output field start column that is defined here determines the location of the value that will be repeated or randomly selected.
Values data set A data set from which records will be randomly selected or repeated.
Provide output values from list Enter a numeric list of values from which one will be repeated or randomly selected during a copy operation.
Random / Repeatable Numeric Provide range of values for the output field Range minimum Select a minimum value for a range from which an output value will be repeated or randomly selected.
Range maximum Select a maximum value for a range from which an output value will be repeated or randomly selected.
Translate Numeric Input field start column Defines the start location of the input field value in the value data set and is used when the translate process is run during a copy operation to match the input field with a value on the value data set.
Output field start column Defines the start location of the output field value in the value data set and is used if an input field value is matched on the value data set. If this occurs, the corresponding output value is used.
Values data set A data set from which records will be randomly selected or repeated.
Exit Numeric Program name The name of a scrambling exit program to be used.1
Parameters Enter parameters to be passed to the exit program.
Format option None Select this option to ensure that values will not be formatted before being passed to the exit program.
Format Select this option to ensure that values are formatted before being passed to the exit program.
Leading zeros Select this option to add leading zeros to the value before being passed to the exit program.
Table 6. Scrambling attributes for Date/Time fields
Scrambling Type Field type Attribute Description
None Date/Time No start and end range values specified in the Scrambling options field in the Date/Time Attributes dialog. No scrambling will be performed.
Random / Repeatable Date/Time Provide range of values for the output field Range minimum Select a minimum date/time value for a range from which an output value will be repeated or randomly selected.
Range maximum Select a maximum date/time value for a range from which an output value will be repeated or randomly selected.
1 In addition to the facilities provided for scrambling in File Manager® Integration, you can also write your own scrambling exit to perform scrambling operations that cannot be done by the supplied scrambling function.