Data Dictionary

Collection of words or phrases in one language presented in an agreed order and intended to provide information. Data dictionaries established by the National Service for Water Data and Reference-dataset Management (Sandre) are specification documents that describe and clarify the terminology and data for a particular field. They include entities (or objects) connected logically with others (the "Station" object is for example connected to the "sample point" object). They are used to design databases in particular. Several aspects of the data are processed: their meaning, essential rules for their drafting or codification, the list of values they can have, the person or persons or organizations who have the right to create, consult, modify or delete them, etc. A data dictionary is based on one or more sets of reference data and materialized by files in XSD and PDF formats.