documenting characteristic of a data concept that is provided in a message

NOTE 1 to entry Documenting characteristics are termed “meta-attributes” when stored in a DD, but are termed metadata when provided within the same message instance as the actual value. For example, a data element may

be defined within the DD with a specific unit of measure, such as meters; the Unit of Measure field is a defined meta-attribute. Alternatively, the unit of measure may be defined at runtime within a message, especially for items such as unit of currency. The field within a message that defines the unit of currency for an included value

would be termed “metadata”.