What is "representation term"

n. (context metadata English) A word or a combination of words that semantically represent the data type (value domain) of a data element, such as the suffix "ID" for the data element "PersonID", the suffix "Name" for "PersonGivenName" and "PersonFamilyName" and "Date" for "PersonBirthDate".

A representation term is a word, or a combination of words, that semantically represent the data type (value domain) of a data element. A representation term is commonly referred to as a class word by those familiar with data dictionaries. ISO/IEC 11179-5:2005 defines representation term as a designation of an instance of a representation class As used in ISO/IEC 11179, the representation term is that part of a data element name that provides a semantic pointer to the underlying data type. A Representation class is a class of representations. This representation class provides a way to classify or group data elements.

A Representation Term may be thought of as an attribute of a data element in a metadata registry that classifies the data element according to the type of data stored in the data element.

Representation terms are typically "approved" by the organization or standards body using them. For example, the UN publishes its approved list as part of the UN/CEFACT Core Components Technical Specification. The Universal Data Element Framework uses a subset of CCTS representation terms and assigns numeric codes to those used.