About Formatted and Unformatted Mode

• Formatted Mode: Causes the results to display formatted values rather than stored values. In other words, the values displayed in the results will be formatted based on any format rules or criteria defined for the fields included in the query.
• Unformatted Mode: Causes the results to display stored values rather than formatted values. In other words, any format rules that have been defined will not be applied, and the results will display values exactly as they exist in the database.

Consider an example where the System Code Table Priority contains the System Codes listed in the following table and is configured to display descriptions only.

ID	Description
1	Very High
2	High
3	Medium
4	Low
5	Very Low

Now, suppose that your database contains the Task family, which contains a Priority field, and also assume that a Valid Values rule has been applied to this field so that it displays a list of values from the Priority System Code Table. Because this System Code Table is set up to display descriptions only, the available values for this field will be Very High, High, Medium, Low, and Very Low. When a user selects one of these values, the corresponding numeric ID will be stored in the field.

When you create a Select query on the Task family, you can choose to run it in formatted or unformatted mode. If you create a query that includes the Task ID, Task Type, and Priority fields and run it in unformatted mode, the results might look something like the following image.

Notice in this image that numeric values are displayed in the Priority column. These are the System Code ID values that are stored in the Priority fields of these records. If you run the same query in formatted mode, the results would look like the following image.

Notice that the Priority column now displays the System Code descriptions that correspond to the stored IDs. In other words, the results now show the formatted values rather than the stored values.

By default, newly created Select queries will run in unformatted mode. You can change the mode and save it with the query so that the next time you run the query, it will use the mode that you last saved. Note that the Formatted check box is available only for Select queries.

Note: If you select the Show Totals option, the query behaves as if it were running in unformatted mode even if you select to run it in formatted mode.