Database Reference
In-Depth Information
•
Quantity. A measure of something in units. Quantity is a broad category containing
any property that can be mathematically manipulated with the exception of cur-
rencies, which are Amounts. Quantity includes counts, weights, volumes, etc.
Examples:
Order Quantity
,
Elevator Maximum Gross Weight
,
Claim Count
•
Number. Number can be misleading as it is usually a business key (that is, a busi-
ness user's way of identifying a concept). Number cannot be mathematically ma-
nipulated and often contains letters and special characters such as the hyphen in
the case of a telephone number. Examples:
Social Security Number
,
Credit Card
Number
,
Employee Access Number
•
Identifier. A mandatory, stable, and unique property of an entity that is used to
identify instances of that entity. Examples:
Case Identifier
,
Transaction Identifi-
er
,
Product Identifier
•
Indicator. When there are only two values such as
Yes
or
No
,
1
or
0
,
True
or
False,
On
or
Off
. Sometimes called a “flag.” Examples:
Student Graduation Indicator
,
Order Taxable Indicator
,
Current Record Indicator
•
Rate. A fraction indicating a proportion between two dissimilar things. Examples:
Employee Hourly Rate
,
State Tax Rate
,
Unemployment Rate
•
Percent. A ratio where 100 is understood as the denominator. Examples:
Owner-
ship Percent
,
Gross Sales Change Percent
,
Net Return Percent
•
Complex. Anything that is not one of the above categories. This can include music,
video, photographs, scanned images, documents, etc. Examples:
Employee Photo
JPEG
,
Contract Signed PDF
,
Employee Phone Conversation MPP
The second template, the Property Characteristics Template, captures important metadata
on each property:
Property Characteristics Template
Property
Definition
Sample Values
Format
Length
Source
Transformations
