Field Types
In the last step, we discussed Data Management Features and Recommendations. In this step, we explore the different Field Types.
Many organisations customise the Power Platform by creating new entities and adding new fields to the database. Doing this greatly expands how the Power Platform can help support an organisation’s business processes. The Power Platform web application lets users who have no development experience perform these actions by using the web application’s built-in customisation tools.
Field Data Types
A field in the Power Platform is also known as an attribute in earlier versions of the application user interface (UI), and is still known by this term in JavaScript and .Net extensions. In the SQL database, a field is a column in the table for the entity.
Fields appear in the UI as controls on a form, and as columns in views and lists (such as on a dashboard or a sub-grid on a form of another record).
Each field in the Power Platform requires a Name that is unique in that entity, and a Type that describes the data that can be stored in the field. The field types that you can select in the UI map to the data type for the column in the database. This determines how much space is required by the field. The available field data types are shown in the following table.
| Data type | Description |
|---|---|
| Single Line of Text | Short text of “n” characters (maximum 4,000). |
| Option Set | Pick-list of options, either specific to a field or a global list that is available to all fields. |
| Two Options | 0 or 1. Displays Yes or No, True or False, or any other two values. |
| Whole Number | Integer from -2,147,483,648 to +2,147,483,647. |
| Floating Point Number | Number with up to five decimal places. Range ± 100,000,000,000. |
| Decimal Number | Number with up to 10 decimal places. Range ± 100,000,000,000. |
| Currency | A number representing a currency value with up to four decimal places and in the range ± 922,337,203,685,477. |
| Multiple Lines of Text | Text that requires more than one line. Up to 100,000 characters. |
| Date and Time | Stored internally as the Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) date and time. Displayed in recognisable local format and time zone. |
| Lookup | A field that allows the user to select another record from a specified entity. |
| Image | A value (GUID) that links to another record. |
| Calculated Field | Contains calculations that use fields from the current entity or related parent entities. |
| Rollup Field | Contains an aggregate value computed from the records related to a record, or a value computed over a hierarchy. |
| MultiSelect Option Set | This field provides a set of options, where multiple options can be selected. When added to a form, this field uses a control for users to select multiple options. When this field is displayed in Advanced Find, users can select multiple options from the list to include in their search criteria. |
| Status | A system field that has options that generally correspond to the record’s active or inactive status. Some system attributes have additional options, but all custom attributes have only Active and Inactive status options. You can also include custom state transitions to control which status options are available for certain entities. |
| Status Reason | A system field that has options that provide additional detail about the Status field. Each option is associated with one of the available Status options. You can add and edit the options. |
| Unique Identifier | A system field stores a globally unique identifier (GUID) value for each record. The average user would not normally use this unique identifier for their everyday business purposes. |
| Customer | A lookup field that you can use to specify a customer, which can be an account or contact. |
For some data types in the Power platform, multiple columns are required in the underlying table. For example, the first time that a currency field is added to an entity, four columns are added (the currency that is being used, the exchange rate, the value and the value that is converted into the base currency for the organisation), and additional currency fields create two columns, the value and the value in the base currency.
Up next, we explore Calculated and Roll-Up Fields.
Dynamics 365: Using Power Platform Applications
Dynamics 365: Using Power Platform Applications
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