Editing Data dictionary (section)

{{Short description|Set of metadata that contains definitions and representations of data elements}}
{{Distinguish|Dictionary (data structure)}}
[[File:Data dictionary.png|thumb|300x300px|A simple layout of a data dictionary]]
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2023}}
A '''data dictionary''', or [[metadata repository]], as defined in the ''IBM Dictionary of Computing'', is a "centralized repository of information about data such as meaning, relationships to other data, origin, usage, and format".<ref>ACM, [http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=541721 IBM Dictionary of Computing], 10th edition, 1993</ref> ''[[Oracle Corporation|Oracle]]'' defines it as a collection of tables with metadata. The term can have one of several closely related meanings pertaining to [[database]]s and [[database management system]]s (DBMS):

* A [[document]] describing a database or collection of databases
* An integral [[software component|component]] of a [[Database management system|DBMS]] that is required to determine its structure
* A piece of [[middleware]] that extends or supplants the native data dictionary of a DBMS