Database  DATABASE / Databases / Create databases

Database: Names and numbers

Names of chemical species:
Names must end with either a comma, a semicolon, or an end-of-line, and therefore blank space is allowed inside a name, but a comma or semicolon can not be included in a name or text. For example:

Fe(OH)2(s,a);   is not correct.

Although it is not possible to include a comma in a name or text, it is however possible to include a semicolon by enclosing the whole name in quotes:

"Fe(OH)2(c;a)"

This means that if a quote (either " or ') is found at the start of a name, DATABASE will look for the ending quote (assuming there is no comma between these two quotes), it will read the text between them and it will remove the enclosing quotes:

"Cr"(OH)3

will be read as two names (Cr and (OH)3), but

Cr("OH")3

does not start with a quote, and will be read as a single name.

Quotes: To include quotes at the start of a name in a database, use two quotes and enclose the whole name in quotes, or enclose the whole name in single quotes, etc:
   """Cr(OH)4""-";  or:  '"Cr(OH)4"-';
another possibility: "'Cr(OH)4'-";

DATABASE will remove the enclosing quotes when reading the database. Note that SPANA does not remove quotes from input files when making diagrams.

Single quotes in names have special meaning when making diagrams, and you can use them in names:

Solid'New`(cr)   will be plotted as: SolidNew(cr)

(in this case the name does not start with a quote, and there is no need to enclose the whole text with extra quotes for DATABASE).

Slash (/): names can not start with a slash and they can not contain “ /” (a space followed by a slash), because it will be taken as the beginning of a comment:

   1/2 Fe2O3;    is correct, but
Fe2O3 /2;    will read as Fe2O3

Electric charges of aqueous species are read from the last characters of a name, in two possible ways:

Phase state: it is indicated at the end of the name
   solid   ending in (cr) or (c) for crystalline, (s) for solid, (am) for amorphous solid. For example: Fe2O3(cr), Fe(OH)3(am)
gas ending in (g) like CO2(g)
liquid ending in (l) like Hg(l)
aqueous any name not ending in (cr), (c), (s), (am), (g) or (l). For example: Na+. Example of uncharged aqueous species: Fe(OH)3

Name begins with:

Numbers:
Real values can be entered with or without decimal point (i.e., 10.0, or 10) and with or without exponent (i.e., 1.0E−3, 1e−3, or 0.001). Integer values (for example the number of chemical components) can not contain decimal point or exponent.