Database Glossary – M
Useful Terms For Working With Data
Major Entity
See: Entity, Major.
Many-to-Many Relationship
See: Relationship, Many-to-Many.
Master Table
See: Table, Master.
Matchcode
Primarily used for identifying duplicate records either contained in the same table, or shared between several tables or lists. A specialized composite key , a matchcode is typically a collection of name and address components that best represent the unique identity of each whole record and the entity it represents. A matchcode might consist of combined First Name, Last Name, Company, Address and ZIP Code field elements, concatenated into matchcode “keys,” which can be compared during the deduping or purging process.
Merging
See: Consolidation.
Metabase [DB Asst]
The metabase is an internal DB Assistant component (although technically an external database) that stores metadata, tasks, and system configuration variables, required by DB Assistant, as well as all imported and created tables.
Metadata
Data about data and the data’s structure within a database. Technical metadata reflects the description of the structure, content, keys, and indexes of data and their source of origin, while business metadata reflects definitions about measures (facts) using calculations.
Migration, Field [DB Asst]
See: Field Migration.
