Introduction to the Data Dictionary

What is a Data Dictionary?

A data dictionary, also called a metadata repository, is a description of data in business terms, also including information about the data (aka "metadata") such as data types, details of structure, and security restrictions.(1)

 

Data dictionaries support data warehouses and BI tools by defining how to use them. The content of the data dictionary often originates from the logical data model.

 

Data dictionaries describe the ingredients and steps to create relevant reports from a relational database. They often contain information about:

• Business Concepts
• Data Types
• Message Components, Constraints, and Elements

 

The data dictionary is a crucial component of any relational database. It provides additional information about relationships between different database tables, helps to organize data in a neat and easily searchable way, and prevents data redundancy issues. (2)

Accessing the Data Dictionary

In order to make the most of your BenchPrep data in Snowflake and the Analyst Workspace (Sisense), BenchPrep will provision access to our proprietary Data Dictionary which contains information on our database schema. Login credentials to our Data Dictionary will be shared with the Snowflake and Analyst Workspace administrator(s).

 

Once you have login credentials, you can login to BenchPrep’s Data Dictionary here.

Using the Data Dictionary

BenchPrep’s data dictionary contains our database schema and is intended to be a resource to help you understand your data.

 

The left hand navigation is organized by database table. Clicking into one of these tables will provide you with an overview description of the table, descriptions of all included table fields.

 

 

Finally, any relationships between the table in question and other tables in the BenchPrep data model are outlined in the "Keys" and "Referenced By" sections.

 

 

You can also search for a given table or data point using the search bar in the top left corner of the dictionary.

 

The table in the screenshots above ("answers") is updated to match the current schema. The dictionary will be updated alongside deploys that include changes to the current schema.

 

Some tables may return a 404 error. This is a result of certain tables having relationships to tables that are not included in the public database subset, which can still turn up under the Keys and Related Tables sections. These 404 errors don’t indicate anything broken: just tables that are not included in our public database.