Field.Attributes property (DAO)

Applies to: Access 2013, Office 2013

Sets or returns a value that indicates one or more characteristics of a Field object. Read/write Long.

Syntax

expression .Attributes

expression A variable that represents a Field object.

Remarks

The Attributes property of a Field object specifies characteristics of the field represented by the Field object. The Attributes property is stored as a single Long Integer and is the sum of the following Long constants:

Constant	Value	Description
dbAutoIncrField	16	The field value for new records is automatically incremented to a unique Long integer that can't be changed (in a Microsoft Access workspace, supported only for Microsoft Access database engine database tables).
dbDescending	1	The field is sorted in descending (Z to A or 100 to 0) order; this option applies only to a Field object in a Fields collection of an Index object. If you omit this constant, the field is sorted in ascending (A to Z or 0 to 100) order. This is the default value for Index and TableDef fields (Microsoft Access workspaces only).
dbFixedField	1	The field size is fixed (default for Numeric fields).
dbHyperlinkField	32768	The field contains hyperlink information (Memo fields only).
dbSystemField	8192	The field stores replication information for replicas; you can't delete this type of field (Microsoft Access workspace only).
dbUpdatableField	32	The field value can be changed.
dbVariableField	2	The field size is variable (Text fields only).\

For an object not yet appended to a collection, this property is read/write. For an appended Field object, the availability of the Attributes property depends on the object that contains the Fields collection.

If the Field object belongs to an	Then Attributes is
Indexobject	Read/write until the TableDef object that the Index object is appended to is appended to a Database object; then the property is read-only.
QueryDefobject	Read-only
Recordsetobject	Read-only
Relationobject	Not supported
TableDefobject	Read/write

When you set multiple attributes, you can combine them by summing the appropriate constants. Any invalid values are ignored without producing an error.

Example

This example displays the Attributes property for Field, Relation, and TableDef objects in the Northwind database.

Sub AttributesX() 
 
 Dim dbsNorthwind As Database 
 Dim fldLoop As Field 
 Dim relLoop As Relation 
 Dim tdfloop As TableDef 
 
 Set dbsNorthwind = OpenDatabase("Northwind.mdb") 
 
 With dbsNorthwind 
 
 ' Display the attributes of a TableDef object's 
 ' fields. 
 Debug.Print "Attributes of fields in " & _ 
 .TableDefs(0).Name & " table:" 
 For Each fldLoop In .TableDefs(0).Fields 
 Debug.Print " " & fldLoop.Name & " = " & _ 
 fldLoop.Attributes 
 Next fldLoop 
 
 ' Display the attributes of the Northwind database's 
 ' relations. 
 Debug.Print "Attributes of relations in " & _ 
 .Name & ":" 
 For Each relLoop In .Relations 
 Debug.Print " " & relLoop.Name & " = " & _ 
 relLoop.Attributes 
 Next relLoop 
 
 ' Display the attributes of the Northwind database's 
 ' tables. 
 Debug.Print "Attributes of tables in " & .Name & ":" 
 For Each tdfloop In .TableDefs 
 Debug.Print " " & tdfloop.Name & " = " & _ 
 tdfloop.Attributes 
 Next tdfloop 
 
 .Close 
 End With 
 
End Sub