Metadata

Metadata is data describing the data structure.

Each edge of a graph carries some data. This data must be described using metadata. Metadata describes both the record as a whole and all its fields.

Records can be of different types, each field can have different data type. See Records and Fields.

• Date and Time Format

• Numeric Format

• Locale

• Time Zone

• Autofilling Functions.

The metadata can be either internal, or external (shared). Metadata can also be created dynamically from an SQL query or read from remote sources. See Metadata Types.

• Internal Metadata

• External (Shared) Metadata

• SQL Query Metadata

• Reading Metadata from Special Sources

For details on metadata propagation, see Auto-propagated Metadata.

Metadata can be created from:

• Flat file: See Extracting Metadata from a Flat File.

• XLS(X) file: See Extracting Metadata from an XLS(X) File.

• DBase file: See Extracting Metadata from a DBase File.

• Database: See Extracting Metadata from a Database.

• SQL query: See SQL Query Metadata.

• By user: See User Defined Metadata.

• Cobol Copybook

• Merging existing metadata: See Merging Existing Metadata.

Metadata editor is described in Metadata Editor.

For detailed information about changing or defining delimiters in delimited or mixed record types, see Changing and Defining Delimiters.

Metadata can also be edited in its source code. See Editing Metadata in the Source Code.

Metadata can serve as a source for creating a database table. See Create Database Table from Metadata.