4.8.1.2 The (Column Properties)Properties Tab


The Properties tab of the Workbook Column Properties dialog allows you to customize the basic properties of a particular column.

The Column Properties Properties Tab 2.png

Short Name,Long Name,Units and Comments

Short Name

Specify the column short name. For more information, see Worksheet, Column and Cell Range Naming Conventions. This is editable only when Spreadsheet Cell Notation is unchecked in the Properties tab of the Window Properties dialog.

Long Name

Specify the column long name. For more information, see Worksheet, Column and Cell Range Naming Conventions.

Units

Specify the units for the column. Units are for reference only and are not used by any analysis.

Comments

Specify the comments for the column. Comments can include multiple rows.

Width

Column Width

Enter the width for a column in this text box.

Apply to All

If you want to apply the width specified by the Column Width text box to all columns in the worksheet, select the Apply to all check box.

To control worksheet column width on import, see LabTalk system variable @ISC.

Options

Plot Designation

A column's Plot Designation determines how the selected data will be handled by default plotting and analysis operations. The Plot Designation drop-down list includes X, Y, Z, X Error, Y Error, Label, Group or Subject (used in ANOVA and some statistical tests), and Disregard. After clicking OK, the column heading displays the new designation in parentheses after the column Short Name. Disregarded data displays only the column Short Name.

Note: Interactive data selection controls in the Plot Setup dialog and many analysis dialogs allow you to ignore default the Plot Designations from worksheet columns.

Format

Numeric

Accepts only numeric values.

Text

Accepts any alphanumeric characters. Values in a text column are treated as text, and cannot be used in calculations, except in some circumstances, when additionally setting a column as Categorical.

By default, a Text cell holds 49 characters, but this is increased to a maximum of 799 characters (a) as more characters are entered in the cell or (b) by changing the value of wks.col.tWidth. By contrast, a Text & Numeric cell can hold up to 3799 characters.

Time

Origin stores Time data internally as days where the fractional part of a number represents the fraction of a day. The display of this data in a column is controlled by the Display control setting. Input of data to a Time column or conversion of Text data to Time should match the formatting in the Display control.

Date

Origin stores Date data internally as days since January 1, 4713 BCE where the fractional part of a number represents the fraction of a day. Just how this number displays in the column is controlled by the Display control setting. Input of data to a Date column or conversion of Text data to Date should match the formatting in the Display control. Direct entry of Dates may use Window's Short Date and Long Date formats with some flexibility - e.g. 1/28/86, 1-28-1986, 1.28.1986, Jan 28 86, Tuesday January 28 1986 are all accepted. Origin will also resolve ambiguities using the current date - e.g. enter Jan and Origin would use the current day and year to complete the entry.

Note that beginning with version 2019, Origin supports two alternate date-time systems -- one a true, unadjusted Julian Day system and the other, a "2018" system in which "time-zero" = Jan 1 2018 00:00.

Month

Accepts only month values. You can enter months as numeric values (1 - 12) or text values. The text may be abbreviated as long as the character(s) represents a unique month. For example, N for November, but Jun for June to differentiate from Jul for July.

Day of week

Accepts only days of the week. Enter day as numerical value (0 - 6) or text values. The text may be abbreviated as long as the character(s) represents a unique day. For example, M for Monday, but Tu for Tuesday to differentiate from Th' for Thursday.

Text & Numeric

This is the default data type for all column designations except for "label". Accepts any alphanumeric characters. However, the text values are treated as missing values for all worksheet operations (such as plotting data points and performing mathematical operations), except where cell values are retrieved as text (such as plotting a data label).

Notes:

  • The default column type in post-Origin 6.0 worksheets is Text & Numeric, whereas the default column type in previous versions was Numeric with an internal data type of Double(8).
  • If you would prefer that columns in new worksheets to be Numeric type instead of Text & Numeric, select the Use Numeric as Preferred Column Type box in the Options dialog box (Preference: Options: Miscellaneous).
Color

Set Column Format to Color:

  • If fill 1-24 munber to the cells of this column, cell background color will show the corresponding color in the Origin default color list.
Origin Color Default list.png
  • If fill HTML color code to cells of this column, cell background color will be changed to the corresponding color.
Color Column.png
  • If cell is invalid value, it shows white.

When you have shown the cell background color, you can check the Display Color Value check box to show the color values as text in the column. By default, the text color is Auto which means automatically show complementary color of the cell color. You can also use the Font Color toolbar Button Font Color.png to choose another color.

Binary

Only two values (1 and 0) is allowed. By default,

  • If you enter numeric data, "0" will still display as 0, and "1" still 1. Any values other then 0 and 1 will display as missing(“--”).
  • If you enter text, “yes” and “true” will display as 1, “no” and “false” display as 0. Any other texts will display as missing.

Note that you can change value of system variable @DBL to 1 to limit the binary values to 1 and 0 only (no missing).

Do not convert text to numeric during data entry

This checkbox is available only when Format is Text&Numeric. When it is checked, the Text & Numeric datasets will show numeric values as text elements, otherwise, numeric values will be shown with scientific notation. For example, if you type in a string "001315472" in Column Cell with "Do not convert text to numeric during data entry" unchecked, the string will be shown as 1.31573E6. However, if you check this checkbox and type again, the string will be shown as 001315472. Note that changing this setting will not affect the display of previously-entered data.

If you want to import digits strings by using Import Single/Multiple ASCII and show them as text by check on Do not convert text to numeric during data entry, the Keep Target Column Format in Miscellaneous Group should be checked in the impASC dialog.

Display

Determines how the data in the column is displayed. The available options vary depending on the selection in the Format drop-down list.

If Format = Numeric or Text & Numeric, available options include:

Decimal:1000

(1, 1000, 1E6, 1E9)

Note: The threshold for conversion to scientific notation is controlled on the Numeric Format tab of the Options dialog box (Preference: Options).

Scientific:1E3

(1E0, 1E3, 1E6, 1E9)

Note: A Labtalk system variable (@ETE) can be used to hide the leading zero in scientific notation. By default it is set as 0, the values display as (1E+00, 1E+03, 1E+06, 1E+09). Setting @ETE=1 to hide the leading zero in scientific notation, then the values display as (1E+0, 1E+3, 1E+6, 1E+9). Select Preference: System Variables to change the value of @ETE.

Engineering:1k

(1.0, 1.0k, 1.0M, 1.0G)

Note: Prior to Origin 2019, you could force a Text & Numeric column to treat engineering notation entered directly, as a numeric. You did this by setting the value of @EF = 1. In Origin 2019 and later versions, you can directly enter engineering notation into a Text & Numeric column, then change the Format to Numeric. Consult the table of supported metric suffixes listed at the bottom of this page.

For information on setting the value of a LabTalk system variable, see this FAQ.

Decimal:1,000

(1, 1,000, 1E6, 1E9)

Note: The threshold for conversion to scientific notation is controlled on the Numeric Format tab of the Options dialog box (Preference: Options).

Custom

When you choose Format = Custom, you have more options as to how you display your data in the worksheet. See the next section Origin Custom Display Options for more information.

Note: Any custom format is saved in your project and should display the same regardless of who is logged in or what computer is in use.


When Format = Time:

Time Choose from one of the built-in time options.
ColProperties Display Time.png

If none of the built-in time formats meets your needs, choose Custom Display and build a custom string using
Origin's Origin's Date and Time Format Specifiers.

The times formats that begin with "DDD" are IRIG (Inter-Range Instrumentation Group) time formats. For more information, see IRIG Time.


When Format = Date:

Date Choose from one of the built-in date options.
ColProperties Display Date.png

If none of the built-in date formats meets your needs, choose Custom Display and build a custom string using
Origin's Origin's Date and Time Format Specifiers.


When Format = Month:

Month Choose from one of three month display options.
ColProperties Display Month.png


When Format = Day of Week:

Day of Week Choose from one of three day of the week display options.
ColProperties Display Day.png

All properly formatted date-time data are stored in the worksheet as Julian day value of type Double(8). This is independent of any Display option that you might choose. Thus, you can freely switch between a date-time format that includes fractional seconds, day of the week, month and back to fractional seconds, without any loss of data.



When Format = Color:

Display Color Value Specify whether to show a Fill Color in the cell. Optionally, display the Origin color index or HTML color code.
ColProperties Display Color.png


Other Numeric Custom Display Formats

When the worksheet column format is set to Text & Numeric, Numeric, or Date or Time, you can specify a custom format for displaying data in the worksheet. You may want to do this for such reasons as:

  • Displaying data in a user-friendly form (e.g. as "12%" vs. "0.12")
  • Displaying data such as date-time data, in your own custom format and have Origin recognize the data as date-time data and not merely text data.


This illustration shows the same numeric values (column A(X)) with various numeric custom formats applied.

ColProperties Custom Formats.png

Digits

This drop-down list is available only when Format is either Text & Numeric or Numeric.

Default Decimal Digits

Display all digits in a worksheet cell as determined by the Number of Decimal Digits combination box value on the Numeric Format tab of the Options dialog box (Preference: Options).

Set Decimal Places =

The number of digits that display after the decimal place (overrides the Number of Decimal Digits setting on the Numeric Format tab of the Options dialog box).

Type the decimal place value (n) in the associated text box. This value = the maximum number of digits displayed after the decimal point. If the field is blank, the default value is used (value = 5 for Double (8) internal data types).

Significant Digits =

The number of digits displayed. Type the value in the associated text box.

Data Type

This drop-down list is available only when Format is Numeric. It determines the bytes of storage space that is allocated to each value.

Double(8)

Allocates eight bytes of storage space to each value. Range of values is ±1.7E±308 (15 digits).

Real(4)

Allocates 4 bytes of storage space to each value. Range of values is ±3.4E±38 (7 digits).

Short(2)

Allocates 2 bytes of storage space to each value. Range of values is -32,768 to 32,767.

Long(4)

Allocates 4 bytes of storage space to each value. Range of values is -2,147,483,648 to 2,147,483,647.

Char(1)

Allocates 1 byte of storage space to each value. Range of values is -128 to 127.

Byte(1)

Allocates 1 byte of storage space to each value. Range of values is 0 to 255.

uShort(2)

Allocates 2 bytes of storage space to each value. Range of values is 0 to 65,535.

uLong(4)

Allocates 4 bytes of storage space to each value. Range of values is 0 to 4,294,967,295.

Complex(16)

Allocates 16 bytes of storage space to each value, where 8 bytes is for the real part and the other 8 bytes is for the imagenary part. Range of values is ±1.7E±308 (15 digits).

Notes:
  • Data Types of less than Double(8) may cause problems with various math operations. For the same reason, you should verify the column Data Type before you enter or import data into a worksheet column. If the Data Type is not appropriate to the data, you risk losing precision in your numbers.
  • Double(8) is the only data type that supports missing values.

Other controls

Custom Display

This combination box is available only when Format is Text&Numeric or Numeric and Display is set to Custom or Format is Date or Time and Display is set to Custom Display. You can enter the custom display format in this box or select from the drop-down list. This setting can be saved with the project. Therefore, when the project is opened by other people, they can see the same display. More details, please see the Origin Formats table and Custom Date and Time Formats.

Apply to All Columns to The Right

If you want to apply the settings in the Options group to all columns to the right of the current column in the worksheet, select this check box.

Supported Metric Suffixes

Note that use of SI suffixes is case-sensitive.

suffix equivalent quantity

k

kilo

10^3

M

mega

10^6

G

giga

10^9

T

tera

10^12

P

peta

10^15

m

milli

10^-3

u

micro

10^-6

n

nano

10^-9

p

pico

10^-12

f

femto

10^-15

Note: "u" is Origin's universal notation for micron. The only exception is graph axes tick labels, which support "mu". Note also that Origin's (Engineering) Display type does not support the following: Y (yotta), Z (zetta), E (exa), a (atto), z (zepto), or y (yocto) as suffixes.