Label
A label is a logical object that provides a different means of representing an attribute. In other words, a label applies additional descriptors to the related attribute.
Each label can be assigned to only one attribute. An attribute can have one or multiple labels. For example, the Department attribute can be represented by different labels, such as Full name, Shortened name, Number. When you choose a label for the Department attribute, you define how you want the attribute values (the company departments) to be displayed:
- Using the
Full namelabel:Human Resources,Research and Development,Quality Assurance - Using the
Shortened namelabel:HR,RD,QA - Using the
Numberlabel:1forHuman Resources,2forResearch and Development, and3forQuality Assurance
The following table shows the relationship of attributes, attribute labels, and attribute values:
| Attribute | Attribute Label | Attribute Values |
|---|---|---|
| Department | Full name | Human Resources Research and Development Quality Assurance |
| Short name | HR RD QA | |
| ID | 1 2 3 |
When you create an attribute in your logical data model (LDM), it is added with a single label, which has the same name as the attribute itself. This label becomes the primary label for the attribute. Every attribute has at least one label, and you can add more labels to it.
Secondary Labels and Sort Columns
When an attribute has secondary labels or uses a sort_column, the mapping from the primary label must be unambiguous.
For every primary label value, all rows in the source data must use the same value for each secondary label and the same value in the sort column. In other words, the primary label must have an N:1 relationship with each secondary label and with the sort column.
Multiple primary label values can share the same secondary label value. For example, two different person_id values can have the same full_name. However, a single person_id must not map to different full_name values.
The same rule applies to a sort column. For example, the following data is invalid:
| ticket | priority | priority_sort_column |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Medium | 1 |
| 2 | Medium | 3 |
| 3 | Low | 2 |
The primary label value Medium maps to two different sort values, 1 and 3. This makes the sort order ambiguous because one value places Medium before Low, while the other places it after Low.
Important Notice
Do not configure secondary labels or sort columns when the mapping from the primary label is ambiguous. Ambiguous mappings can lead to incorrect or duplicate results.
When the attribute with multiple labels is used in an Visualization, the attribute values belonging to the primary label will be populated into the visualization.
Within an LDM, a label belongs to an attribute in a dataset and must define a source column that corresponds to a column from the database.