Sheetward User Guide

Data type referenceReference

1 · Relation. A relation lets one form pull from another — an order that points at a customer, a claim that points at an employee. Put relation in the Data type column and name the target in the Value column: [Form].field, [Form].{Section}.field, or in plain English field in Form. You can put relation in either the Data type or the Rule Type column — both work, and the target goes in Value either way. Either name can be written plainly, in [brackets] or in "quotes", and the two don't have to match — "Purchase Requisition"."Purchase Requisition" and [Purchase_Requisition].purchase_requisition mean the same thing. Capitals, spaces and underscores are all treated alike, so you can write a field the way its label appears on the form. The picker lists that form's records — the key plus a couple of recognizable columns. After you pick one it offers a choice: reference only, prefill the matching header fields, or — on a form with line items — the header and the record's line items too. The field you point at must be a key or a subkey; anything else still builds, but the field stays a plain input and you'll see a warning. Pointing at a subkey narrows the list by the target form's key: fill in this form's same-named key field first (say, Year), and the picker shows only the records under that value. Leave it blank, and the picker asks you to fill the key field first.

2 · Standard lists. Some types arrive with their list of values built in — no List_ sheet to maintain, no typos to chase. The field becomes a searchable dropdown that stores the standard code and shows code + name. For countries, currencies and languages the name appears in each viewer's own language; the stored code never changes.

These names are reserved. A field merely named like one of them (gender, ship_country, …) gets its standard list automatically, and a Rules-sheet Data type can ask for one outright. If your workbook also carries a sheet for the same thing — a List_Currency beside the built-in currency list — the built-in list wins and your sheet is ignored, with a warning that names it and says how many rows it held. That keeps one Currency in your master data instead of two that disagree. The rule holds for every name in the table above, with no exceptions: List_State means the standard list of states even if you meant something else by it. To keep a list of your own, give the sheet a name that isn't in the table (List_Currency_Pairs rather than List_Currency, List_Order_Stage rather than List_State).

3 · Locale-dependent types. Some types follow the reader's region or the field's country instead of a fixed US format — the same stored value shows as 1,234.56 in Texas and 1.234,56 in Berlin. (None of these are standard lists, but the country and currency code lists pair naturally with them.)

Want the whole catalogue as a spreadsheet? A full reference ships at docs/Sheetward_Data_Types.xlsx — one tab per group above (Data Types · Standard Lists · Locale-dependent Types).