PROPERTY

The PROPERTY command adds or deletes properties to the most recently defined or considered object (see the DEFINE PROGRAM and CONSIDER commands). A property is a named value that is associated with a given definition. You can assign one or more properties to any type of definition. For example, you can assign a property to an object so you know how many decimal places to use when preparing a report on the object.

Syntax

PROPERTY { name value | DELETE {ALL | name} }

Arguments

name

A text expression that contains the name of the property. The property name can be from 1 to 256 bytes long.

Important:

Do not create your own properties with names that begin with a $ (dollar sign). Properties with names beginning with a $ (dollar sign) are reserved for Oracle OLAP to use as "system" properties that Oracle OLAP interprets in predetermined ways.

Property names have the TEXT data type, unless you include a Unicode escape sequence in the value you specify for the name, or unless you explicitly convert the value you specify to NTEXT (using the CONVERT or TO_NCHAR functions).

value

An expression that contains the value of the property. The property value can have one of the following data types: NUMBER, INTEGER, LONGINTEGER, DECIMAL, SHORTDECIMAL, TEXT, NTEXT, ID, BOOLEAN, DATE, or DATETIME. Oracle OLAP determines the data type based on the value that you specify. For example, when you specify YES, then Oracle OLAP assumes a type of BOOLEAN. When you specify a date value that is stored in a variable of type DATE, then Oracle OLAP assumes a type of DATE for the property.

DELETE ALL

DELETE name

Deletes either all of the properties of the object or only the property you specify for name. You can specify only one name at a time.

Notes

Triggering Program Execution When PROPERTY Executes

Using the TRIGGER command, you can make the PROPERTY command an event that automatically executes an OLAP DML program. See "Trigger Programs" for more information

Changing a Property Value

When you execute a PROPERTY command that assigns a new value to an existing property name, then the new value overwrites the previous one.

Determining Property Values with OBJ

To use properties with OLAP DML statements, you must obtain the values by using the property-related keywords of the OBJ function. For example, suppose a property called decplace stores the number of decimal places to use when reporting an object. When you execute the REPORT command, you can use the OBJ function with the PROPERTY keyword to obtain the value of the decplace property and use that value with the REPORT command's DECIMAL attribute.

Listing Property Values with FULLDSC

You can list the properties of an object by using the FULLDSC command. You can use the output from FULLDSC to create new objects. See FULLDSC for more information.

Examples

Example 19-43 Adding Properties to a Variable

The following statements add the properties decplace and prgname to the actual variable and assign the decimal 4 as the value for the decplace property and the text repprg as the value for the prgname property.

CONSIDER actual
PROPERTY 'decplace' 4
PROPERTY 'prgname' 'repprg'