Navigating Large DBs

Data dictionaries and hints

Data dictionaries

A data dictionary is a description of the data used in a database. It includes information about columns/fields, such as their names, data types, length, formats and relationships with other data elements. You can think of a data dictionary as a map to navigate a database.

A good data dictionary helps you quickly find and make sense of the information you seek, saving you countless hours in data exploration and analysis.

Careful, though! Just like any map, data dictionaries might not be 100% complete or correct. Check with the actual data in DB using PowerBI or ADS. Some columns in WWI have very poor data quality.

Online reference materials

• This data dictionary for WWI was generated by a tool called SQL Data Dictionary.
• This data dictionary for WWI was generated by DataEdo
• This is the data dictionary for WWI by Microsoft.