Reference data is data that is used to identify a particular record or entity within a dataset. This data can be used to cross-reference other data, or to provide additional context for analysis. For example, a reference dataset may contain customer IDs, product IDs, or geographic codes that can be used to link to other data sources.
Reference data is often used in data warehousing and data mining applications, where it can be used to improve the accuracy of results by providing more complete and consistent information. It can also be used in data cleansing applications to help identify and correct errors in other data sets.
Why is reference data important?
Reference data is important for many reasons. It can be used to validate and cleanse other data sets, it can be used to provide context for other data sets, and it can be used to help answer questions about other data sets.
For example, if you have a data set of customer records, you might use reference data to validate the customer records. This could involve checking that the customer's name, address, and contact details are all correct. You might also use reference data to provide context for the customer records. This could involve adding information about the customer's demographics, interests, and purchasing history.
Reference data can also be used to help answer questions about other data sets. For example, if you have a data set of sales records, you might use reference data to help answer questions about which products are selling well, which sales regions are performing well, and so on.
What is reference data in bank? Reference data in banking refers to the data that banks use to identify and track their customers, transactions, and other data points. This data can include things like customer names and addresses, account numbers, transaction history, and more. Banks use this data to help them make decisions about things like loan approvals, credit limits, and fraud prevention.
What is reference data source?
A reference data source is a data source that contains values that are used to populate fields in other data sources. For example, a reference data source may contain a list of countries, which can then be used to populate a field in a data source that contains customer information. Reference data sources can be either internal or external to an organization.
What is reference data collection?
Reference data is a general term that refers to the non-transactional data that is used to populate the fields of a transactional system. This data is typically used to lookup values in the transactional system, and is not directly used in the processing of transactions.
There are many different types of reference data, but some common examples include:
- Country codes
- Currency codes
- Product codes
- Account codes
Reference data is often stored in a central repository, such as a database, and is accessed by the various transactional systems when needed. This allows for a single source of truth for the reference data, and helps to ensure consistency across the transactional systems.
What is reference data vs master data? Reference data is data that is used to complete a transaction or provide context for a business event, but is not specifically about that event. For example, reference data might include a customer's address or a product's price. Master data, on the other hand, is data that defines a business entity, such as a customer or a product. Master data includes both reference data and transactional data.