The field names from the datafile are used to identify fields in the forms and template files. The name of a form input parameter is matched with a data field name and then the value of the input is compard with the field values to find matching records. Field names in templates indicate which fields should be included in the results returned to the user.

Any field which has a name beginning with an underscore (_) is not indexed and will only be searched using the contains criteria. For example a field named _birthDay would not be indexed and exact or starts with matches could not be done against it. This is an optional feature for memory and start up speed performance purposes.

Any field which has a name beginning with a number sign (#) is sorted numerically and arithmetic comparisons can be used as selection criteria (see forms documentation). The only text search that can be done on a numeric fields is 'contains'.

Any field which has a name beginning with an at sign (@) is sorted into categories. Fields which have only a few unique values should be set up this way - for example a field which has only Yes and No values. Load time and memory requirements are significantly reduced by this optimization. As usual the at sign is considered part of the field name.

Special Characters in First Character of Field Name