Data structure and data format requirements

What is data structure?

Data structure, or record structure, refers to:

• the fields (data elements) contained in a record
• the number and order of the fields
• the data type and length of the fields

Fields are the individual units of data in a record, such as first name, last name, address, vendor ID, and so on.

What is data format?

Data format refers to characteristics of the values contained in fields, such as:

• justification
• case
• the format of dates

Requirement for identical data structure or format

Depending on the data combining method, Analytics requires that records or fields in the tables being combined have an identical data structure. In some cases, field values must be identically formatted.

Data combining method	Data structure requirement	Data format requirement
Append	To be directly appended to one another, fields must have identical physical names and belong to the same data category.	No requirement
Extract/Append	Entire records, all fields in a view, or all selected fields in tables being extracted and appended must be exactly identical in structure.	Datetime format must be identical
Merge	Entire records in tables being merged must be exactly identical in structure.	Datetime format must be identical
Join Relate	The common key fields in tables being joined or related must be exactly identical in structure.	Values in common key fields must be identically formatted in order for Analytics to correctly match values.

Data structure requirements in detail

Requirement for tables being combined	Append (common fields)	Extract/Append (entire record, fields in view, or selected fields)	Merge (entire record)	Join (common key field)	Relate (common key field)
Fields (data elements)	must be the same data elements	must be the same data elements	must be the same data elements	must be the same data elements	must be the same data elements
Field name	must be identical	can differ	can differ	can differ	can differ
Number and order of fields	number must be identical order can differ	must be identical	must be identical	not applicable	not applicable
Data type of corresponding fields	data category must be identical datetime subtypes must be identical automatic harmonization of character and numeric data subtypes	must be identical	must be identical	must be identical automatic harmonization of character-numeric joins	must be identical
Field length of corresponding fields	can differ	must be identical	must be identical	must be identical, or recommended to be identical, depending on data type automatic harmonization of the length of character key fields	recommended to be identical

Data format requirements in detail

Requirement for corresponding fields	Append (common fields)	Extract/Append (entire record, fields in view, or selected fields)	Merge (entire record)	Join (common key field)	Relate (common key field)
Date/Datetime format	automatic harmonization of date, datetime, or time formats	must be identical	must be identical	can differ	can differ
Justification	can differ	can differ	can differ differences affect sort order of key field	must be identical	must be identical
Case	can differ	can differ	can differ differences affect sort order of key field	must be identical	must be identical
Format of field value (Standardized hyphenation, street type abbreviation, etc.)	can differ	can differ	can differ differences affect sort order of key field	must be identical	must be identical