Re: "thou shalt not conflate meta-data with data"

From: FrankHamersley <FrankHamersleyZat_at_hotmail.com>
Date: Fri, 04 Mar 2005 11:44:11 GMT
Message-ID: <fSXVd.183889$K7.24518@news-server.bigpond.net.au>

Neo wrote:
>>There is no meta data here! Cheers, Frank.  >
> That would seem to contradict the earlier posting by frosty from which
> I would have guessed that attribute in each table is meta data (ie Name
> in T_Gender and Name and Gender in T_Person and maybe even ID).
>

>>PS I could derive some if you need it!

>
> Yes, I would like see a simple example which would illustrate meta
> data. Better yet would a definition, rule or step-by-step method that
> would allow one to determine if X is meta data.
>

[T_Gender]		[T_Person]
ID Name			ID Name Gender
-- ------		-- ---- ---------
1  Male			3  John Male  (1)
2  Female		4  Mary Female(2)

A small portion of the implied metadata is...

[T_Tables]
Table

---

T_Gender
T_Person
T_Tables
T_Columns

[T_Columns]
Table      Column

--------- ------

T_Gender   ID
T_Gender   Name
T_Person   ID
T_Person   Name
T_Person   Gender
T_Tables   Table
T_Columns  Table
T_Columns  Column

As for your desire of finding a rule Neo, simply conducting an observation of X in isolation can not determine if X is meta data or not. However if its context is considered you will be much better placed to have a wild guess! Cheers, Frank. Received on Fri Mar 04 2005 - 05:44:11 CST