Everything WIMS tracks is called a variable. The WIMS users are trained to identify variables by their names and variable numbers. Internally, each variable has a unique identifier and hence variable name and/or number can be changed at any time.
Variable descriptions are stored inside the VARDESC table. The most important fields that define a variable are VARID,VARNUM,NAME and VARTYPE. The source query for this figure is the following:
select varid,varnum,name,vartype from vardesc
![](http://www.opssys.com/instantkb/Attachments/1bc1eb04-8ecf-4eca-a3c8-f8b3.png)
Column descriptions:
VARID –A unique identifier for a variable.
VARNUM – Numeric identifier for a variable that’s available to users.
NAME – Variable name.
VARTYPE – Variable type. The VARTYPE column defines the type of a particular variable. Different columns of the VARDESC table need to be populated depending on VARTYPE.
WIMS currently supports the following variable types:
P – Daily variable / parameter
C – Daily calculated variable
T – Daily text variable
4 – Daily Detail variable tracked every 4 hours
G – 4 hour calc.
E – 4 hour text variable
H – Daily Detail variable tracked every hour
N – Hourly Calc
B – Hourly Text
3 – Daily Detail variable tracked every 30 minutes
W – 30 Minute Calc
Q – 30 Minute Text
F – Daily Detail variable tracked every 15 minutes
V – 15 Minute Calc
X – 15 Minute Text
5 – Daily Detail variable tracked every 5 minutes
Y – 5 Minute Calc
R – 5 Minute Text
1 – Daily Detail variable tracked every minute
S – Minute Calc
A – Minute Text