What is Metadata?

Metadata is information that is internal to an application that describes elements in the application, such as tables and columns. Metadata can be divided into two main categories:

Physical metadata

specifies a set of software instructions that describe an application element.

For example, the physical metadata for a SAS table might specify a certain number of rows and columns, with certain data transformations applied to some columns.

Business metadata

specifies text that describes the content or purpose of an application element.

For example, the business metadata for a SAS table might describe the purpose of the table and contact information for the person responsible for the accuracy of the information in the table.

Most SAS/Warehouse Administrator metadata contains information about data sources, data stores, and the jobs that extract, transform, and load source data into the warehouse data stores. SAS/Warehouse Administrator metadata is stored in two or more metadata repositories.

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