| Representation Term |
Article Index for Representation |
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Information AboutRepresentation Term |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT REPRESENTATION TERM | |
| iso---iec 11179 | |
| metadata registry | |
| metadata | |
| semanticsiso---iec 11179 | |
| metadata registry | |
| metadata | |
| semantics | |
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In ISO/IEC 11179 , while a ''representation term'' is a part of a data element name, a ''representation class'' provides a way to Classify or group Data Element s. ISO/IEC 11179-5:2005 defines ''representation term'' as a ''designation of an instance of a representation class''. A ''Representation Term'' may be thought of as an attribute of a Data Element in a Metadata Registry that classifies the data element according to the type of data stored in the data element. There are only a small list of approved representation terms (around a dozen) and some standards such as the Universal Data Element Framework assign numeric codes to these terms. Complex Data Elements (sometimes called ''domains'' or ''concepts'') typically do not have a representation term in many metadata systems such as GJXDM or the NIEM . Therefore the presence of a representation term is usually a good indication that the data element is NOT complex and can be considered a property of another object. USE CASES FOR REPRESENTATION TERM Finding equivalent properties When a person or software agent is analyzing two separate metadata registries to find Property Equivalence , the Representation Term can be used as a guide. For example, if system A has a Data Element such as PersonGenderCode and system B has a data element such as PersonSexCode the code suffix might assist the two systems to only match data elements that have the suffix "Code". Inference The Representation Term can be used in many ways to do inferences on data sets. Representation Terms tells the observer of any data stream about the data types and gives an indication of how the Data Element can be used. This is critical when mapping metadata registries to external Data Elements. For example if you are sent a record about a person you may look for any "ID" suffix to understand how the remote system may differentiates two distinct records. Required fields Representation Terms are also used to make inferences about the requirements of a property. For example if a data stream had Data Element PersonBirthDateAndTime you would know that BOTH the date AND time are available and relevant, not just the date. If the birth time was optional, a separate data elements should be used such as PersonBirthDate and PersonBirthTime. Finding data warehouse dimensions and measures When creating a data warehouse, a business analyst the Representation Terms to quickly find the dimensions and measures of a subject matter in order to build OLAP cubes. For example: # Indicator or '''Code''' are use to create data warehouse dimensions # Date or '''DateTime''' are used to related to the time dimension, which are frequently shared between cubes using conformed dimensions # Amount, '''Number''', '''Measure''' or '''Value''' terms (which can be added together) are candidates for a measures # Name and '''Text''' are used for screen labels or other descriptive elements # Percent need to be analyzed since they can't really be added together with clear meaning # ID is used to remove duplicate records Universal Data Element Framework Some informal standards such as the Universal Data Element Framework (which refer to a Representation Term as a "Property Word") assign unique integer IDs to each Representation Term. This allows metadata mapping tools to map one set of data elements into other metadata vocabularies. An example of these mappings can be found at Property Word ID . Note that as of November 2005 the UDEF concepts have not been widely adopted. EXAMPLE OF REPRESENTATION TERMS AS AN XML SUFFIX For example if an XML Data fragment had the was the following: In the example above, the Representation terms are "ID" for the SAMPLE REPRESENTATION TERMS The following are samples of Representation Terms that have been used for the exchange of electronic messages in systems such as NIEM , EbXML 1.9 or GJXDM 3.0: PROS OF REPRESENTATION TERMS
CONS OF REPRESENTATION TERMS
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