The data type of the field determines many of the characteristics of the format template. For each data type, you can define a custom format.

For numeric and varchar data types, a format template consists of character set definitions and special characters that represent the valid characters that the end user can enter.

To the end user, the template provides visual clues about the type and format of the data to be entered. In OpenROAD, each character set definition in the template represents one or more valid characters. For more information, see Numeric Templates and Varchar Templates, respectively.

For date data types, end users follow the form of the example date in the field to enter the actual date. For more information, see Date Format Templates.