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Workday User Guide
Last Updated: 2023-07-14
Reference: Table Field Attributes

Reference: Table Field Attributes

When you add or edit a field in a table in the Data Catalog, you define these attributes:
Field Attribute
Notes
Display Name
You can change this name at any time. The name must conform to name validation rules.
API Name
The API name must be unique in the table. Workday automatically selects an API name based on the field name you enter, modifying it to make it meet the name requirements. Click
Change
to change the API name. You can’t change the API name after you save the table.
Field Type
Select the field type that the values in this field must match to be recognized as valid data. You need to configure additional field attributes for some field types you select.
Date Format
(Required for Date fields) Select the date format that the values in this field must match to be recognized as valid date data.
Digits Before and Digits After
(Required for Numeric fields) Enter the maximum number of digits before and after the decimal point that the values in this field can have to be recognized as valid numeric data. The sum of these 2 options must be less than or equal to 38.
Business Object
(Required for Instance and Multi-Instance fields) Select the business object to associate with the values in this Instance field.
Report Field
(Optional for Instance and Multi-Instance fields) The context information for the Instance or Multi-Instance field. To enter or change the report field, enter the Workday ID.
Description
(Optional) Add a helpful field description that explains the meaning and data value characteristics of the field.
Required
Specifies that the field must contain data. Make a field required to ensure it doesn’t contain a NULL value when you insert or update data in the table. When you insert or update data in a table and this field is NULL, Workday rejects the row and instead includes it in the error file.
Default Value
Use the Default Value to define a value for a field if the uploaded source file schema doesn't include that field. When the source file schema doesn't include a field, Workday uses the default value for all rows in the source file.
The Default Value is only used when the source file schema is missing a field, not when a particular field value is NULL.
Use as External ID
Use this attribute to mark a single field in a table as a key. Specify a field as the external ID when the values in the field uniquely identify each row from its source.
Define a field as the external ID if you want to update or delete data in the table based on data in an external file. This attribute is similar to a primary key in a relational database.
When using this attribute, consider:
  • You can only define 1 field in a table as the external ID field.
  • Ensure that each field value in the external ID field is unique. If the field values aren’t unique, you'll get unexpected results. Workday doesn’t enforce the uniqueness.
  • You can’t define a default value for fields used as an external ID. The field value must come from the external source and can’t be NULL.
  • Workday automatically marks the external ID field as required.