Numeric aspects of attributes

Descriptions of the size, purpose, scale, and range aspects of attributes.

When you specify a numeric attribute, you must specify the size, purpose, scale, and range of the attribute. For more information, see (Table 1).

Table 1. Numeric attribute options
Numeric aspects	Options and fields	Description
Size	32 bits 64 bits	The value of 32-bit numbers can range from `-2147483648` to `2147483647` (roughly `-2,000,000,000` to `2,000,000,000`). The value of 64-bit numbers can range from `-9223372036854775808` to `9223372036854775807` (roughly `-9x10¹⁸` to `9x10¹⁸`)
Purpose	Gauge	Integer values where the raw values returned are larger or smaller than previous values. Negative values are supported. This type is the default type for integers. Data aggregation in the warehouse produces minimum, maximum, and average values.
	Counter	A positive integer value that contains raw values that generally increase over time. Data aggregation in the warehouse displays the total, high, low, and latest delta values. In the following example of Delta-based calculations, detailed data values in one hour are 9, 15, 12, 20, 22, and delta-based processing has the following rules: If the current value is greater than or equal to the previous value, the output equals the previous value minus the current value If the current value is less than the previous value, the output equals the current value Because 15 is greater than 9, the output equals 6 Because 12 is less than 15, the output equals 12 Because 20 is greater than 12, the output equals 8 Because 22 is greater than 20, the output equals 2 The TOT_ value is 28, which is the total of outputs The LOW_ value is 2, which is the lowest of outputs The HI_ value is 12, which is the highest of outputs
	Property	A property of the object that does not frequently change. Data aggregation in the warehouse displays the latest value that is collected during the period.
	Delta	An integer value that represents the difference between the current value and the previous value for this attribute. Because this attribute is represented as a gauge in the warehouse, data aggregation in the warehouse produces minimum, maximum, and average values.
	Percent change	An integer value that represents the percent change between the current value and the previous value. This type is calculated as: `((new -old)*100)/old`. Because this type is represented as a gauge in the warehouse, data aggregation in the warehouse produces minimum, maximum, and average values.
	Rate of change	An integer value that represents the difference between the current value and the previous value, which is divided by the number of seconds between the samples. It converts a value (such as bytes) to the value per second (bytes per second). Because this type is represented as a gauge in the warehouse, data aggregation in the warehouse produces minimum, maximum, and average values.
Scale	Decimal adjustment	Scale determines how many decimal places are in the number. Each decimal place reduces the range that is mentioned earlier by a factor of 10. For example, a decimal adjustment of 2 shows two decimal places, and in a 32-bit number the allowable range becomes `-21474836.48` to `21474836.47`. When a non-zero decimal adjustment is specified, the number is manipulated internally as a floating point number. Therefore, the precision of large 64-bit numbers might be reduced.
Range	Minimum Maximum	Range gives the expected range of the value. If no minimum or maximum ranges are given, the maximum values that are described earlier are used. The range is used to produce a more useful initial view in some graphical Tivoli® Monitoring workspace views.
Units		Unit of measurement for a numeric attribute.