A hyperlink is a pointer from one object to another. The destination is frequently another Web page, but it can also be a picture, an e-mail address, a file (such as a multimedia file or Microsoft Office document), or a program. The hyperlink itself can be displayed as text or as a picture.
You can use hyperlinks to do the following:
Navigate to a file or Web page on a network, intranet, or Internet
Send an e-mail message
Start a file transfer, such as a download or an FTP process
When you point to text or a picture that contains a hyperlink, the pointer becomes a hand 
, indicating that it is something you can click. When a site visitor clicks the hyperlink, the destination is displayed, opened, or run, depending on the type of destination. For example, a hyperlink to a sound file opens the file in a media player, and a hyperlink to a Web page displays the page in a Web browser.
Parts of a hyperlink address
A hyperlink address can have up to four parts that are separated by the number sign (#):
| Part | Description |
|---|---|
| displaytext | The text that you see in the cell when you choose to display data as hyperlinks. For example, you might want to display a descriptive name for the World Wide Web site or object specified by the address and the subaddress. This is an optional field. |
| address | An absolute or relative path to a target document. An absolute path is a fully qualified URL or UNC path to a document. If you don't specify the address, displaytext is assumed to be the address. |
| subaddress | The location in the file or page. For example, you might want to point to a particular paragraph in the target document. |
| screentip | The text that appears when you rest the pointer on a hyperlink. This is an optional field. |
Showing data as hyperlinks
You can choose to display data as hyperlinks in a row, column, or detail field by changing the field's property settings. When data is displayed as hyperlinks, users can click the hyperlinks to navigate to other Web pages or objects.
Grouping on fields that contain hyperlinks
The result of grouping on hyperlink fields depends on how the corresponding source data field is defined. If the source data field is a Character Large Object (CLOB), when you group on the hyperlinks you will see two group members — one for blank values and one for all non-blank values. If the source data field is defined as scalar, such as varchar, the values will be grouped on individual hyperlink values. The uniqueness of the member is based on the displaytext and the address parts of the hyperlink.