How to Create a Data Dictionary? + Templates From ProjectBI & USDA

Data dictionary is critical to describing the contents, format, and structure of a database and the relationship between its elements.

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Data dictionary is a file that defines the format of data in an ASCII flat file, the field names, their order, their data type and the byte positions they occupy in the file. To put it simply, it is a form of document that describes the number of features, number of rows, data types, cardinality of features, and modes of data collection. Here’s some schematic example extracted from taxi trip provided as the public dataset in Google BigQuery. You will notice that the field “Description” is the one that needs to be very clear and succinct.

Today, I would like to deep dive into the the templates by ProjectBI and USDA and give my perspective upon what else that can be included towards how organizations can create the best data dictionary ever.

Downloadable Templates from ProjectBI and USDA

ProjectBI Template