Saturday 3 November 2012

4 Facts That Makes Reference Data Special

If you don't have much experience in handling reference data then it is advisable that you do not underestimate the simplicity of its structure. It needs to be handled differently to other data since it has its own management needs. Here are a few details explaining the data's value:

1. It Presents Values With Definitions or Meaning

An essential contribution of reference data is it presents actual values that include definitions or meaning. The complexity of these definitions may be comparable to the complexity of the entities' and attributes' definitions.

There are types of data that may contain different values yet with similar definitions. For example, a bank may possess several thousands of accounts with different account numbers and while every account number is unique, the bank may have provided a single definition or meaning for all of them.

Since this data allows meaning or definitions to go along with its values, these values are then able to control program logic. This is also the reason this data is often linked with a business' guidelines. So in order to have a sturdy business guideline, it is essential to learn how to effectively manage reference data.

2. It Does Not Show The Parties A Certain Establishment Transacts With

Some reference data requires the details of the parties or things that an enterprise transacts with, yet it does not display them. The purpose of asking for the details is that it is needed in the database in order to categorize other data which can best describe the transactions of that enterprise.

3. Its Values Are Prepared Not Within An Enterprise

A unique attribute of this data is its values are usually not created within the enterprise. For example, there are clusters of country codes that are managed by the United Nations. For this reason, an enterprise does not need to develop its own data values for a certain data table.

4. Highly Leveraged Throughout The Databases

A great attribute of this data is the fact that it is commonly used all over the database, throughout an organization's databases as well as across several organizations' databases. A currency table can be associated with other tables which contain the financial amounts inside the database. This association is useful in a way that it determines the currency

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