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<appendix id="comparing">
  <title>
    Comparing &kexi; to other database applications
  </title>
  <para>
    Although different database applications tend to provide similar
    functionality, they often use different terminology.  For your
    convenience, this appendix shows how the terminology used in
    &kexi; corresponds to that used by other database applications.
    Thus, this chapter may be useful when migrating databases from
    one application to another.
  </para>
  <sect1 id="comparing-data-types">
    <title>
      Data types
    </title>
      <para>
	The table below shows how the data types in &kexi; correspond
	to data types in other database applications.
      </para>
      <para>
	Some of the data types listed here are
	<firstterm>sub-types</firstterm> of other types.  For example,
	the <emphasis>Long text</emphasis> type is a sub-type of the
	<emphasis>Text</emphasis> type.  To use a sub-type in
	&kexi;, you should select the corresponding basic type (in
	this case, Text) in the table designer, and then select the
	sub-type using the <guilabel>Subtype</guilabel> setting in the
	<guilabel>Properties Editor</guilabel>.
      </para>
      <table>
      <title>
	Comparison of data types used in &kexi; and other database
	applications
      </title>
      <tgroup cols="4">
	<thead>
	  <row>
	    <entry>&kexi;</entry>
	    <entry>MS Access</entry>
	    <entry>dBase/FoxPro</entry>
	    <entry>Paradox</entry>
	  </row>
	</thead>
	<tbody>
	  <row>
	    <entry>Text (Text)</entry>
	    <entry>Text</entry>
	    <entry>Character</entry>
	    <entry>Alphanumeric</entry>
	  </row>
	  <row>
	    <entry>Long text (Long text)</entry>
	    <entry>Memo</entry>
	    <entry>Memo</entry>
	    <entry>Memo</entry>
	  </row>
	  <row>
	    <entry>Date/Time (Date/Time)</entry>
	    <entry>Date, Time</entry>
	    <entry>Date</entry>
	    <entry>DateTime</entry>
	  </row>
<!-- Not visible in Kexi GUI yet.
	  <row>
	    <entry>Object (Object)</entry>
	    <entry>OLE Object</entry>
	    <entry>General</entry>
	    <entry>OLE, Graphical Binary</entry>
	  </row>
-->
	  <row>
	    <entry>Integer Number (Integer Number)</entry>
	    <entry>Number (Integer)</entry>
	    <entry>Numeric</entry>
	    <entry>Integer</entry>
	  </row>
	  <row>
	    <entry>Big Integer Number (Big Integer Number)</entry>
	    <entry>Long Integer</entry>
	    <entry>Numeric</entry>
	    <entry>Long Integer</entry>
	  </row>
	  <row>
	    <entry>Floating Point Number (Floating Point Number)</entry>
	    <entry>Single/Double precision number</entry>
	    <entry>Float</entry>
	    <entry>Number</entry>
	  </row>
	</tbody>
      </tgroup>
    </table>
  </sect1>
</appendix>
