Understand Fields | Zoho Creator Help

Understand fields

Understand fields

A field is the basic unit or building block of a form. In your Zoho Creator app, you collect and store data using  forms  and each field in a form holds an individual piece of that data.

For example, a form to collect the contact details of your employees may contain separate fields to capture name, email address, phone number, residence address, etc. Each record stored in this form represents the contact information of an employee and each field in a record stores one piece of that information.

A form takes on the same role in your Zoho Creator app as a table in a database or a sheet in a spreadsheet. A field takes on the role of a column within the sheet or table.

Below is an example of an  Employees  form, which contains a few different types of fields:
  • When a user accesses from a web browser:

What is a field made of?

When added to a form, almost all types of field have:
  • Field name: The text or label that denotes what data the field captures
  • Input area: The input box, dropdown, radio button, checkbox, or a combination of these input elements which a user can use to enter data in the field

The following images show how two types of fields:  name  (labelled  Name ) and  email  (labelled  Email Address ). The input area of the  Name  field contains one dropdown for  Prefix  and input boxes for  First Name  and  Last Name . The input area of  Email Address  contains one input box.

  • When a user accesses from a web browser:

  • When a user accesses from a phone or tablet:

Types of fields

Zoho Creator offers many types of fields – each meant to capture a specific kind of data. They are listed in the table below.

In addition to these field types, Zoho Creator also has system fields. Refer to this page to learn more about them.
Field type Data type Description
Name STRING A composite field that enables your users to enter their full name
Email STRING Enables your users to enter a valid email address, i.e., an email address that is in the format  xx@xx.xx
Address STRING A composite field that enables your users to enter an address. They can pick an address from a map, or type it.
Phone STRING Enables your users to enter a valid international phone number, i.e., a phone number that has the required number of digits for the selected country
Single line STRING Enables your users to enter a single line of plain text or text that can contain any character
Multi line STRING Features a bigger text area than the Single line field. It enables your users to enter plain text that can contain any character
Rich text STRING Enables your users to enter data in Rich Text Format (RTF)
Number BIGINT Enables your users to enter an integer value
Auto number BIGINT Enables a sequential numeric value to be associated with each record submitted through the form
Decimal DECIMAL Enables your users to enter a decimal value
Percent DECIMAL Enables your users to enter an integer or decimal value. A percentage symbol will be displayed next to the input.
Currency DECIMAL Enables your users to enter a monetary value. A currency symbol will be displayed next to the input.
Date TIMESTAMP Enables your users to enter a date value. They can pick a date from a date picker, or type it.
Time TIME Enables your users to enter a time value. They can pick a time from a time picker, or type it.
Date-time TIMESTAMP Enables your users to enter a date-time value. They can pick a date and time from a date-time picker, or type it.
Drop down STRING Enables your users to select a value from a defined set of choices displayed in a dropdown menu
Radio STRING Enables your users to select a value from a defined set of choices displayed as radio buttons
Multi select LIST Enables your users to select one or more values from a defined set of choices displayed in a dropdown menu
Checkbox LIST Enables your users to select one or more values from a defined set of choices displayed as checkboxes
Decision box BOOLEAN Enables your users to enter a true/false or yes/no response
URL STRING Enables your users to enter a URL for a website or web page
Image STRING Enables your users to submit an image, by either by taking or uploading a picture
Audio STRING Enables your users to submit an audio of up to 30 minutes, by either recording or uploading an audio file
Video STRING Enables your users to submit a video of up to 5 minutes, by either recording or uploading a video file
Signature STRING Enables your users to draw their signature
File upload STRING Enables your users to submit a file
Subform  -  Enables relating the data in two forms by displaying one form within the other. Each record in the main form can be related to multiple records in the subform.
Lookup BIGINT Enables relating the data in two forms by looking up data stored in a different form, and allowing users to select one or multiple values
Formula (depends on the result of its expression) Computes and generates a value based on a predefined formula
Section  -  Introduces a visual grouping of fields in the form
Add notes STRING Displays a note on your form
Users STRING Features a single-select dropdown menu that displays your app's users
Integration STRING Features a single-select dropdown menu that displays data stored in an external service
Prediction (depends on its target field) Predicts the value of a field in your form
Keyword extraction STRING Extracts keyword from the text stored in a single line or multi line field 
Sentiment analysis STRING Determines if the sentiment of the text stored in a single line or multi line field is positive, neutral, or negative
OCR STRING Performs optical character recognition - recognizes text from an image
Object detention STRING Determines the class of objects present in the image

  1. Add a field
  2. Rearrange fields
  3. Delete fields 

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