Every field on a Pyron form has a type that sets what it captures and how people fill it in. This page lists the field types you can choose from, grouped by the kind of data they hold, with an example of each. To add fields to a form and set their type, see setting a field's type.
Text and numbers
The plainest fields capture free text or a number. These cover most of what a form asks for, and they are what someone sees first when they create an entry.
A text field holds one line by default. You can set it to allow several lines when people need to write a paragraph, such as a description or a set of notes. A text field can also be set to expect a particular shape, such as an email address or a web address.
A Yes / No field asks for one answer. When you mark it required, people must choose Yes or No before they can save — it does not force the answer to be Yes.
Choices
A choice field offers a fixed list of options and lets people pick from it. Single choice takes exactly one option; multiple choice takes any number of them, with no option picked twice.
Each option carries a label that people see and a stored value kept behind it. You can define a list of options once and share it across several fields — a list of sites or a set of severity levels, for example — so that updating the shared list updates every field that uses it.
An option can also carry a colour, so its answers stand out as a coloured tag when you view entries in a table. Options without a colour show as a neutral grey tag.
A choice can decide which other fields appear next. Picking a particular option can reveal fields that only apply to that choice, which keeps a form short until the extra detail is needed — see conditional fields.
You can change the label people see on an option at any time, and existing entries keep their answers. Changing what an option means is different: once entries hold a choice, that choice stays tied to it. Add a new option rather than reusing an existing one for a different purpose.
Dates and times
Date and time fields capture a point in time rather than plain text, which lets entries be sorted and filtered by them.
A date field can be set to a coarser grain when a full day is not needed — a year on its own, or a month within a year. Because these fields hold real dates, entries can be filtered and sorted by them when you filter your entries.
A date or time field can start out holding the current date and time when someone opens the form. People can still change it, so this saves a step on the values that are almost always the moment the entry is created. Only date and time fields behave this way.
Lists and attachments
Some fields hold more than one value at a time — a list of choices, a group of people, or one or more attached files.
A multiple-choice field is the same shared list of options described under Choices, holding every option a person selects. A people field draws its options from the members of your organisation, so it stays in step as membership changes.
Files upload when the entry is saved, which makes attachment fields a good fit for photos, scanned documents, or supporting paperwork. For how these fields fit into a form overall, see how a form is put together.