DiscoveryDataDescriptionStructure

InstanceVariable inherited from CDIFDataDescription

DiscoveryDataDescriptionStructure::Classes::InstanceVariable

Definition

Documentation

Original
Reference

cdi:InstanceVariable

Definition

Definition

Use of a represented variable within a data set.

Examples

1. Gender: Dan Gillman has gender <m, male>, Arofan Gregory has gender <m, male>, etc. 2. Number of employees: Microsoft has 90,000 employees; IBM has 433,000 employees, etc. 3. Endowment: Johns Hopkins has endowment of <3, $1,000,000 and above>, Yale has endowment of <3, $1,000,000 and above>, etc. 4. A tornado near Winterset, Iowa, had a peak wind speed of 170 mph. Two instance variables of a person's height reference the same represented variable. This indicates that they are intended to: be measured with the same unit of measurement, have the same intended data type, have the same substantive value domain, use a sentinel value domain drawn from the same set of sentinel value domains, have the same sentinel (missing value) concepts, and draw their population from the same universe. In other words, the two instance variables should be comparable.

Explanatory notes

The instance variable class inherits all of the properties and relationships of the represented variable class and, in turn, the conceptual variable class. This means that an instance variable can be completely populated without the need to create an associated represented variable or conceptual variable. If, however, a user wishes to indicate that a particular instance variable is patterned after a particular represented variable or a particular conceptual variable that may be indicated by including a relationship to the represented variable and/or conceptual variable. Including these references is an important method of indicating that multiple instance variables have the same representation, measure the same concept, and are drawn from the same universe. If two instance variables of a person's height reference the same represented variable. This indicates that they are intended to: be measured with the same unit of measurement, have the same intended data type, have the same substantive value domain, use a sentinel value domain drawn from the same set of sentinel value domains, have the same sentinel (missing value) concepts, and draw their population from the same universe. In other words, the two instance variables should be comparable. The instance variable describes actual instances of data that have been collected.

CDIF
Definition

CDIF Instance Variable

Scope

A cdi:InstanceVariable as referenced by schema:variableMeasured. Carries the variable's identification, physical data type, value domains, units, function, source, and concept-or-term references.

Diagram

Inheritance

No generalization relationships.

Attributes

NameTypeMultiplicityDescription
identifierXsdAnyUri[1]

Documentation

Original
Reference

schema:identifier

Definition

The identifier property represents any kind of identifier for any kind of [[Thing]], such as ISBNs, GTIN codes, UUIDs etc. Schema.org provides dedicated properties for representing many of these, either as textual strings or as URL (URI) links. See [background notes](/docs/datamodel.html#identifierBg) for more details.

Scope

Domain: Thing (https://schema.org/Thing). Range: PropertyValue (https://schema.org/PropertyValue), Text (https://schema.org/Text), URL (https://schema.org/URL).

CDIF
Definition

The primary identifier for the dataset; other identifiers should be listed in the sameAs field. Schema.org has three ways of encoding identifiers-- a text description, a URL, or by using the schema:PropertyValue field. The Science on Schema.org guidance strongly recommends using the PropertyValue approach. see https://github.com/ESIPFed/science-on-schema.org .... Dataset.md#identifier. Ideally, for any given data provided they would provide identifiers either all as strings or all as identifier_type.

Scope

@id - URI for the variable.

namestring[0..1]

Documentation

Original
Reference

schema:name

Definition

The name of the item.

Scope

Domain: Thing (https://schema.org/Thing). Range: Text (https://schema.org/Text).

CDIF
Definition

A descriptive name of a dataset (e.g., 'Snow depth in Northern Hemisphere'). The name should uniquely identify the described resource for human use, in the scope of the metadata catalog containing this metadata record.

Scope

schema:name - label for the variable.

descriptionstring[0..1]

Documentation

Original
Reference

schema:description

Definition

A description of the item.

Scope

Domain: Thing (https://schema.org/Thing). Range: Text (https://schema.org/Text), TextObject (https://schema.org/TextObject).

CDIF
Definition

A short summary describing a dataset. This text will be indexed by search applications, so the more information here, the better.

Scope

schema:description - free-text description.

alternateNamestring[0..*]

Documentation

Original
Reference

schema:alternateName

Definition

An alias for the item.

Scope

Domain: Thing (https://schema.org/Thing). Range: Text (https://schema.org/Text).

CDIF
Definition

Alternate or abbreviated name(s) for this place.

Scope

schema:alternateName - additional name(s).

physicalDataTypestring[1]

Documentation

Original
Reference

cdi:physicalDataType

CDIF
Definition

identifier or name for the data type concept.

Scope

cdif:physicalDataType - physical representation type. Required at Data Description level.

minValuestring[0..1]

Documentation

Original
Reference

schema:minValue

Definition

The lower value of some characteristic or property.

Scope

Domain: MonetaryAmount (https://schema.org/MonetaryAmount), PropertyValue (https://schema.org/PropertyValue), PropertyValueSpecification (https://schema.org/PropertyValueSpecification), QuantitativeValue (https://schema.org/QuantitativeValue). Range: Number (https://schema.org/Number).

CDIF
Definition

minimum numeric value in the dataset

Scope

schema:minValue - lower bound.

maxValuestring[0..1]

Documentation

Original
Reference

schema:maxValue

Definition

The upper value of some characteristic or property.

Scope

Domain: MonetaryAmount (https://schema.org/MonetaryAmount), PropertyValue (https://schema.org/PropertyValue), PropertyValueSpecification (https://schema.org/PropertyValueSpecification), QuantitativeValue (https://schema.org/QuantitativeValue). Range: Number (https://schema.org/Number).

CDIF
Definition

maximum numeric value in the dataset

Scope

schema:maxValue - upper bound.

unitCodestring[0..1]

Documentation

Original
Reference

schema:unitCode

Definition

The unit of measurement given using the UN/CEFACT Common Code (3 characters) or a URL. Other codes than the UN/CEFACT Common Code may be used with a prefix followed by a colon.

Scope

Domain: PropertyValue (https://schema.org/PropertyValue), QuantitativeValue (https://schema.org/QuantitativeValue), TypeAndQuantityNode (https://schema.org/TypeAndQuantityNode), UnitPriceSpecification (https://schema.org/UnitPriceSpecification). Range: Text (https://schema.org/Text), URL (https://schema.org/URL).

CDIF
Definition

URI or code identifying the unit of measure

Scope

schema:unitCode - URL/code identifying the unit of measure.

unitTextstring[0..1]

Documentation

Original
Reference

schema:unitText

Definition

A string or text indicating the unit of measurement. Useful if you cannot provide a standard unit code for <a href='unitCode'>unitCode</a>.

Scope

Domain: PropertyValue (https://schema.org/PropertyValue), QuantitativeValue (https://schema.org/QuantitativeValue), TypeAndQuantityNode (https://schema.org/TypeAndQuantityNode), UnitPriceSpecification (https://schema.org/UnitPriceSpecification). Range: Text (https://schema.org/Text).

CDIF
Definition

unit of measurement as text

Scope

schema:unitText - text label for the unit of measure.

platformTypestring[0..*]

Documentation

Original
Reference

cdi:platformType

CDIF
Definition

The application or technical system context in which the variable has been realized - typically a statistical processing package or processing environment (InstanceVariable.platformType).

Scope

cdi:platformType - the platform/system the variable was realized on.

simpleUnitOfMeasurestring[0..1]

Documentation

Original
Reference

cdif:simpleUnitOfMeasure

CDIF
Definition

The unit in which the data values are measured (kg, pound, euro), expressed as a simple string, in cases where no additional information is available (in the legacy system) or needed (as in the case of broad agreement within the community of use [i.e., ISO country codes, currencies, etc. in SDMX])

Scope

cdif:simpleUnitOfMeasure - plain-string unit-of-measure shorthand.

measurementTechniquestring[0..*]

Documentation

Original
Reference

schema:measurementTechnique

Definition

A technique, method or technology used in an [[Observation]], [[StatisticalVariable]] or [[Dataset]] (or [[DataDownload]], [[DataCatalog]]), corresponding to the method used for measuring the corresponding variable(s) (for datasets, described using [[variableMeasured]]; for [[Observation]], a [[StatisticalVariable]]). Often but not necessarily each [[variableMeasured]] will have an explicit representation as (or mapping to) an property such as those defined in Schema.org, or other RDF vocabularies and "knowledge graphs". In that case the subproperty of [[variableMeasured]] called [[measuredProperty]] is applicable.

The [[measurementTechnique]] property helps when extra clarification is needed about how a [[measuredProperty]] was measured. This is oriented towards scientific and scholarly dataset publication but may have broader applicability; it is not intended as a full representation of measurement, but can often serve as a high level summary for dataset discovery.

For example, if [[variableMeasured]] is: molecule concentration, [[measurementTechnique]] could be: "mass spectrometry" or "nmr spectroscopy" or "colorimetry" or "immunofluorescence". If the [[variableMeasured]] is "depression rating", the [[measurementTechnique]] could be "Zung Scale" or "HAM-D" or "Beck Depression Inventory".

If there are several [[variableMeasured]] properties recorded for some given data object, use a [[PropertyValue]] for each [[variableMeasured]] and attach the corresponding [[measurementTechnique]]. The value can also be from an enumeration, organized as a [[MeasurementMethodEnum]].

Scope

Domain: DataCatalog (https://schema.org/DataCatalog), DataDownload (https://schema.org/DataDownload), Dataset (https://schema.org/Dataset), Observation (https://schema.org/Observation), PropertyValue (https://schema.org/PropertyValue), StatisticalVariable (https://schema.org/StatisticalVariable). Range: DefinedTerm (https://schema.org/DefinedTerm), MeasurementMethodEnum (https://schema.org/MeasurementMethodEnum), Text (https://schema.org/Text), URL (https://schema.org/URL).

CDIF
Definition

The technique, technology, or methodology used for measurement or determination of the dataset values.

Scope

schema:measurementTechnique - measurement technique used for this variable.

Associations

RoleTargetMultiplicityKind
variableMeasuredDataset[1..*]composition
takesSubstantiveValuesFromSubstantiveValueDomain[0..1]association
takesSentinelValuesFromSentinelValueDomain[0..*]association
usesCdifConceptOrTerm[0..*]association
hasIntendedDataTypeDefinedTerm[0..1]association
describedUnitOfMeasureCdifConceptOrTerm[0..1]association
functionCdifConceptOrTerm[0..*]association
qualifiesInstanceVariable[0..*]association
isDescribedByStatisticsCollection[0..*]association
sourceDefinedTerm[0..*]association
measurementTechniqueDefinedTerm[0..*]association
formatsAbstractMapping[1]association
formatsPhysicalMapping[1]association
formatsTextMapping[1]association
formatsLocatorMapping[1]association
indexesComponentPosition[1]association
appliesToStatistics[0..*]association
hasWeightStatistics[0..1]association
indexedByStatisticsCollection[0..*]association