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CDS: person name vs. full name

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Posted on by Olivier

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Looking at the standard entities in CDS/CDM, I am trying to understand the significance of the various fields. In particular, there is the FullName field which is of type "text" with the "searchable" box checked; Then there is the PersonName which is of type "person" with the "searchable" box unchecked.

What is the recommended use of these entity fields? When would you use PersonName vs. FullName?

Thanks,

Olivier

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Building Power Apps

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v-yamao-msft on at

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Hi Olivier,

In a custom entity, I created a Text field for FullName, and a Person field for PersonName.
Then I opened the entity in Excel, I found that the PersonName includes Given name, Middle name, Surname. While FullName is just a text field.

When I created an app based on this entity, I was asked to enter Given name, Middle name, Surname for each field. While Fullname is only one field.

So my understanding is that if you want your user to enter the exact name with Given name, Middle name, Surname, a Person field type might be your choice.

Please try this on your side, hope it can be a reference for you.

Best regards,
Mabel Mao

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Olivier 192 on at

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Hi Mabel,
I was aware of the difference between Person and Text field types, my question was more about the reason for which Microsoft designs their contact entities with both types. When do they use one vs. the other? When would someone leverage one vs the other? Are there cases where both are used within a record and why?
Thanks

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CWesener on at

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Hi Olivier,

The Full name is a calculated field, based on the indidivual components. If your Party Type on the entity is set to "Person" then you can enter values in First, Middle and Last and Full name will be calculated to combine those fields.

Thanks,

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