Canonical value
The one agreed spelling for a thing that can be written several ways, such as VA for Virginia, virginia, and Va.
Choosing canonical values is a decision, not a discovery. Write the list down before mapping anything to it.
Where it comes up
- Inconsistent category labelsA column meant to hold a few fixed values holds many spellings of them.
- Name variantsThe same person or organization appears under several spellings, orders, and abbreviations.
See also
- StandardizationRewriting values so that everything of one kind follows one format: every date year first, every phone number in the same pattern.
- NormalizationConverting values to a common form or scale. The word is used for text (one case, one spacing), for numbers (a common range), and for database design (removing repetition).