Structure IDs, Names and Descriptions

Overview

Identifiable structures are identified by an ID which must be unique within their context.
Maintainable and Nameable structures are also Identifiable and therefore must have an ID, but in addition have a Name, and an optional Description.

ID

An ID is a string that is mandatory for Identifiable structures and serves as a unique reference as part of each structure's URN.

IDs must be unique within their context. For instance the ID of each Concept must be unique within its Concept Scheme. However, Concepts in different Concept Schemes can have the same ID.

Allowable Content	Example
Alpha Numeric	A-Z a-z 0-9
Dollar	$
Hyphen	-
Underscore	_

By convention IDs are often uppercase, but lowercase characters can also be used. It is also conventional for Codelist IDs to start with 'CL_'.

ID Examples:

Structure Type	ID
Agency	SDMX
Agency	IMF
Concept Scheme	CROSS_DOMAIN_CONCEPTS
Codelist	CL_REF_AREA
Codelist	CL_FREQ
Data Structure Definition	ECOFIN_DSD
Dataflow	WDI_HEALTH
Dimension	FREQ
Dimension	REF_AREA
Attribute	OBS_STATUS

Name

A Name is a string that is mandatory for Maintainable and Nameable structures providing a human-readable way to identify the structure.

Unlike an ID, a structure's name does not have to be unique within its context.

Names can be multilingual.

Name examples:

Structure Type	ID	Name(en)	Name(fr)
Agency	SDMX	SDMX	SDMX
Agency	OECD	Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)	Organisation de Coopération et de Développement Économiques (OCDE)
Concept Scheme	CROSS_DOMAIN_CONCEPTS	SDMX Cross Domain Concept Scheme
Codelist	CL_REF_AREA	Reference area code list	Liste des indicatifs régionaux de référence
Codelist	CL_FREQ	Frequency code list	Liste des codes de fréquence
Data Structure Definition	ECOFIN_DSD	ECOFIN data structure definition
Dataflow	WDI_HEALTH	World Bank World Development Indicators Health

Description

Maintainable and Nameable structures may also be given a description. Descriptions are optional and serve to provide an additional human-readable explanation about the purpose of the structure.

Descriptions can be multilingual.

Description Example:

Structure Type	Agency
ID	ESTAT
Name (en)	Statistical Office of the European Union (Eurostat)
Description (en)	Eurostat is the statistical office of the European Union situated in Luxembourg. Its task is to provide the European Union with high quality statistics at European level that enable comparisons between countries and regions. Website: http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/.
Description (fr)	Eurostat est l'office statistique de l'Union européenne situé au Luxembourg. Sa mission est de fournir à l'Union européenne des statistiques de haute qualité au niveau européen permettant des comparaisons entre pays et régions. Site Web: http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/.