> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.kinetica.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Column Properties

<a id="sql-column-properties" />

| Column Property | Description |
| - | - |
| `COMPRESS(TYPE)` | Applies [compress](/content/concepts/types#types-data-handling) data handling to a column using the specified compression type, enabling compression of its values; see [Column Compression](/content/concepts/column_compression) for details |
| `DICT` | Applies [dict](/content/concepts/types#types-data-handling) data handling to a column, enabling dictionary-encoding of its values; see [Dictionary Encoding](/content/concepts/dictionary_encoding) for details |
| `INIT_WITH_NOW` | For `DATE`, `TIME`, `DATETIME`, and `TIMESTAMP` column types, enables the database to use `NOW()` as the value when the column is not specified in an `INSERT` statement; also directs the database to replace empty strings (for `DATE`, `TIME`, & `DATETIME` columns) and invalid timestamps (for `TIMESTAMP` columns) with `NOW()` during inserts |
| `INIT_WITH_UUID` | For `UUID` column type, enables the database to use a universally unique identifier (UUID) as the value when the column is not specified in an `INSERT` statement; also directs the database to replace empty strings (for `UUID` columns) with UUIDs |
| `IPV4` | Treats the associated string-based column as an [IPv4 address](/content/concepts/types#types-data-types) |
| `NORMALIZE` | For `VECTOR` column type, automatically normalizes each vector to have a magnitude of *1*; see [Vector Type](/content/vector_search#vector-type) |
| `PRIMARY_KEY` | Treats the associated column as a [primary key](/content/concepts/tables#primary-key), or part of a *composite primary key* if other columns also have this property |
| `SHARD_KEY` | Treats the associated column as a [shard key](/content/concepts/tables#shard-key), or part of a *composite* *shard key* if other columns also have this property |
| `TEXT_SEARCH` | Applies [text-searchability](/content/concepts/types#types-data-handling) to a column |
| `UPDATE_WITH_NOW` | For `DATE`, `TIME`, `DATETIME`, and `TIMESTAMP` column types, enables the database to use `NOW()` as the value when the column is not specified in an `UPDATE` statement; also directs the database to replace empty strings (for `DATE`, `TIME`, & `DATETIME` columns) and invalid timestamps (for `TIMESTAMP` columns) with `NOW()` during updates |
| `UPDATE_WITH_USER` | For string column types, directs the database to store the name of the user performing the update as the column's value whenever a row is updated and the column is not specified |


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