About strings

A string is a type of global object that encapsulates a value, usually a set of alphanumeric characters. Using string objects rather than literal text as form or component captions supports consistency and eases customization and translation. For example, changing the value of the string named “sPartNo” from "Part No." to "Part Number" affects all the forms and components that use that string. If literal text is used for each caption, each form and each component must be updated individually.

Strings are stored in a strings table in the forms database, which can contain multiple versions of the strings table. One version of the strings table is current at run time. This capability allows you to build an application that supports various languages dynamically.