Tips for Naming Attributes

Fathom Overview > Attributes > Tips for Naming Attributes

Attribute names appear in formulas, and this fact places restrictions on their names. Each attribute in a collection must have a valid, unique name. (Otherwise a formula referring to an attribute would be ambiguous.) Valid attribute names contain only letters, underscores, and numbers; they cannot begin with a number. No spaces or other characters are allowed. These restrictions are required for editing of formulas to work properly.

Examples of invalid attribute names are: Person’s name (both apostrophe and space are not allowed), IsMarried? (question mark not allowed), and 2ndYearHeight (cannot begin with a number). If you attempt to give an attribute an invalid name, Fathom alerts you to the problem and attempts to make the name valid by stripping out invalid characters.

To get numbers in an attribute name, put the number last or in the middle, rather than first. Instead of 1stDrop and 2ndDrop, use drop1 and drop2. When you need several words in an attribute name, separate the words with an underscore character, or capitalize the first character in each word. Examples: income_after_taxes or HeightBefore.