Field
What is a field?
A field is an attribute of a record in a database table. You can think of a field like the “heading” of a column, or a label on a container of values. Fields in Metabase also contain metadata about the values the field contains (see Field properties).
Example field
Subtotal is a field in the Orders table in the Sample Database included with Metabase.
The fields in a table define the values each record can have in the table.
Field properties
In Metabase, fields have four properties:
- Field name
- Field description
- Data type (like Integer or Text)
- Field type (like Income or Foreign key)
In figure 1, the Subtotal field has a field type of Income and a data type of Float, as well as a description: “The raw, pre-tax cost of the order. Note that this might be different in the future from the product price due to promotions, credits, etc.”
Columns vs fields
People usually use the terms “column” and “field” interchangeably. They’re technically not the same thing, but it usually doesn’t matter. See Columns vs. Fields.
