Definitions for ASF KID

This document was created from the ASF KID on Sun Dec 22, 2024

This is the current list of the data fields in the ASF's KID. They are identical with the draft data fields of the Informatics Commission (UISIC) of the International Union of Speleology. The definitions below are arranged in UISIC Field ID (FID) order. The FID and field name are shown first, followed by the other details. If the field has coded values a link to the available codes for that field will be provided.

The full list of all definitions is here: Field Definitions.    The full list of all field value codes is here: Field Value Codes.
Also see the Notes at the end for the meanings of the various abbreviations used here.

To find a field name in this list use your browsers search facility to search for the text or partial text. If you know the FID, you can go straight to the field by adding #fid to the URL in your browser window and pressing <Return>.

Total number of FIDs: 61

Definition: The sequence number of one record among several which represent the values of a multi-valued field, and forming part of each such record's key. Example: Three records describing three different items representing the contents of a cave would have "Value sequences" of 1, 2, & 3 resp. Comments: The purpose of this field is (1) to make the key of each multi-valued record unique, and (2) to set the sequence in which the multi-valued records are stored and displayed.

Definition: The code for the UIS status of a field or value definition issued by UIS.

Definition: The English text for the UIS status of a field or value definition issued by UIS.

Definition: The country in which this database site is located. Usage: This field can be set only by the Central Database Administrator.

Definition: The standard three-letter code for the organisation operating this database site. Comment: (1) See also 178[Organisation code], 182[Database org code]. Usage: This field can be set only by the Regional Database Administrator.

Definition: The spoken language normally used by this database site, expressed as an ISO 2-letter language code, normally in lower case.

Definition: The standard 3-letter code for the organisation controlling the standards and design for the database being used at this site. Comment: See also 178[Organisation code]. Usage: This field can be set only by the Central Database Administrator.

Definition: The sequence number of a form which this field appears on.

Definition: The tablename of the detail form for this instance of the field.

Definition: The form number of the detail table for this instance of the field.

Definition: The page number of the form for this instance of the field.

Definition: The code to indicate the local status of a field or value definition which has been issued by UIS, regardless of the UIS status of that definition.

Definition: The English text to indicate the local status of a field or value definition which has been issued by UIS, regardless of the UIS status of that definition.

Definition: The code to indicate the local status of a new field or value definition proposed to UIS.

Definition: The English text to indicate the local status of a new field or value definition proposed to UIS.

Definition: The "Alpha-2" two-letter country code according to ISO Standard 3166. Comment: Codes which ISO has designated for user allocation are AA, QM-QZ, XA-XZ, and ZZ. It is therefore proposed to use AA for "International", and XA-XZ for country regional groupings, e.g. XA = Australasia.

Definition: The country name, sometimes abbreviated, based on ISO Standard 3166, which corresponds to an Alpha-2 Country Code.

Definition: The local code for a State within a country. For example, "7" for Tasmania within Australia, or "TX" for Texas within USA.

Definition: The name of a State within a country, in the local language.

Definition: The official name of the Map Grid upon which the actual location co-ordinates are based, as opposed to the map grid co-ordinates given using any specific mapsheet. Example: "Australian Map Grid" in Australia. Usage: (1) Depending on the table structure being used at your database site, this field might appear once for the whole site, or else for each location entered. (2) This field can be set only by the Regional Database Administrator.

Definition: The default value for whether the database site wants the arrows which indicate the scrolling situation for the detail tables on a multi-table screen to be available or not. Comment: (1) Leaving them off allows better performance on a low-powered PC. (2) This value can be overridden for the duration of a particular session. Example: 1 = Yes, 0 = No.

Definition: The default value for whether the database site wants to have field value codes translated into the selected language on the screen during operation. Comment: (1) Leaving them off will improve performance on a low-powered PC. (2) This value can be overridden during any particular session. Example: 1 = Yes, 0 = No.

Definition: The name of one of the levels of government in the country. Comment: (1) The levels should be stored in order of size with the largest first and the smallest last. Example: In Australia there are two levels below "country" - the first is "State", and the second is "Local Government Area", i.e. municipality. Usage: This field can be set only by the Central Database Administrator.

Definition: The name of one of the series of land units used within the country to subdivide land. Comment: These should be stored in order of size with the largest first and the smallest last. Example: In the State of Victoria in Australia, land is divided first by "State", then by "County", "Parish", "Section", "Crown allotment", "LP" (lot on plan), "Lot". Usage: (1) This field can be set only by the Regional Database Administrator. (2) It is vital that once this field is set and in use, that it not be changed, because these names are also used as the screen prompts for data entry for these values for a cave or karst feature. If the relative prompts are changed, then thereafter the affected fields will contain a mixture of data, some of it wrong.

Definition: The precision to which the coarse geographic co-ordinates, 21[Latitude - coarse] and 22[Longitude - coarse], can be given, expressed in degrees.decimal degrees. Comment: (1) Having coarse co-ordinates available allows publication of an approximate location to enable spatial searches and reports without revealing the exact location. This field chooses the coarse precision which is suitable for coarse lat/longs in this country. Example: In Australia the precision used is 0.0833 degrees (5 minutes). Max text length: sign(1)+whole(2)+sep(1)+dec(4) = total 8, scale 4. Usage: This field can be set only by the Central Database Administrator.

Definition: The precision to which the coarse grid references, 26[Grid reference - coarse], can be given, using the same units as the grid references. Comment: Having coarse co-ordinates available allows publication of an approximate location to enable spatial searches and reports without revealing the exact location. This field chooses the coarse precision which is suitable for coarse grid refs in this country. Example: In Australia coarse grid references are given to a precision of 10 000 metres (10km). Max text length: sign(0)+whole(6)+sep(1)+dec(3) = total 10, scale 3. Usage: This field can be set only by the Central Database Administrator.

Definition: The length units in which the coarse grid references are given, expressed as a coded value. Usage: This field can be set only by the Central Database Administrator.

Definition: A generic coded field which can be used for translating the coded values used by any field containing codes which specify the units of length used. Usage: UIS fields related to length measurement will already specify the unit to be used, i.e. the units are always fixed for a particular field, so this field is not needed. However, where a field is describing lengths set outside our control, e.g. the grid units used on a government-produced topographic map, then the field's length units are not pre-determined and so a further field is needed to specify the length units used. Having length units fixed for a particular field greatly simplifies data transfers; a further possibility would be separate fields for different units (not recommended!).

Definition: A generic coded field which can be used for translating the codes used by any length unit field into abbreviations for the length units.

Definition: The name of an auxmaster table. Enables each auxmaster table to be kept up to date with its respective entity ID. This field will appear in the auxmaster table for each entity, e.g. for caves, will appear in CA0000x0.

Definition: The name of the bibliographic abstracts publication which has been referred to in the "local abstracts" fields in the References table. Usage: This field can be set only by the Regional Database Coordinator.

Definition: The initials or abbreviation of the bibliographic abstracts publication which has been referred to in the "local abstracts" fields in the References table. Example: "ASA" for "Australian Speleo Abstracts". Usage: The field can be set only by the Regional Database Administrator.

Definition: A range of available code numbers for indicating the coding-type of a field. For example, whether it is uncoded, has a standard code, or has a local code.

Definition: The text corresponding to an 'AT coding-type code'.

Definition: The range of integer codes available to indicate a field's length type for data interchange purposes, e.g. whether it is a long or a short field.

Definition: The text corresponding to a 'Field length-type code'.

Definition: A range of integer codes to indicate whether a field is a primary or secondary key.

Definition: The text corresponding to a 'key status code'.

Definition: A range of integer codes to indicate whether a field is single- valued or multi-valued.

Definition: The text corresponding to an 'AT cardinality code'.

Definition: A range of available integer codes to indicate whether a field is set or whether it is used in a particular table.

Definition: The text corresponding to a 'value set code'.

Definition: A range of available integer codes to indicate the data-type of a field. For example, numeric, integer, alphanumeric, etc., types.

Definition: The text corresponding to an 'AT data-type code'.

Definition: The range of available codes from the ISO-639 international standard to indicate the language being used. These codes are two-letter lower-case codes.

Definition: The text corresponding to a 'Language code ISO-639'.

Definition: A range of available integer codes to indicate the update status of an SSC category.

Definition: The text corresponding to an 'SSC update-status code'.

Definition: The common abbreviation (as opposed to the code) for a State in a country.

Definition: A dummy sequence number to provide a unique lookup value for use where the lookup has duplicate values in the looked-up field. This field is needed only because of a quirk of Paradox software. Example: The Genus+Species lookup on the genus field has duplicate genus values; to allow selection of other than the first of these, a unique value for the lookup field must be provided. So we lookup on the sequence number but copy down same-named fields, i.e. genus and species only. Comment: The width of this field will vary with each use of it because it must match the width of the actual field being looked up.

Definition: A brief statement of the map series used for providing the map sheet name and grid reference for coarse locations. Example: "250K topo" for 1:250 000 Topographic Series. Usage: This field can be set only by the Central Database Administrator.

Definition: A brief statement describing the qualifier which is being used to enable distinguishing between similar grid references on the one map sheet when giving coarse locations. Comment: (1) On 250K sheets you can use the "100km square letters" or the "100K map sheet numbers" to distinguish between identical grid references on the sheet. Example: "100K map sheet number" Usage: This field can be set only by the Central Database Administrator.

Definition: The type of agent who has carried out some function, with respect to whether they are a private individual, a voluntary organisation, a government department, or the like. Expressed as a numeric code. Comment: This is a "system" value which could apply to a range of fields in a range of entities, e.g. a map producer, a land owner, a cave discoverer, etc.

Definition: The name of the land unit series being used at this site to provide a publishable land unit location for caves or karst features which does not reveal their exact location. Example: The name is "Parish" in the State of Victoria in Australia. Usage: This field can be set only by the Regional Database Administrator.

Definition: The length units of 28[Altitude - coarse], expressed as a coded value. Usage: This field can be set only by the Central Database Administrator.

Definition: A generic coded field for common use by data-confidence-level fields when translating their coded value. Usage: When various data-confidence-level fields need their code value translated, this field should be used rather than having a separate series of values for each data-confidence-level field. A one-character symbol 508[Data confidence symbol] is also available as a translation.

Definition: A generic coded field for a one-character symbol for use by data- confidence-level fields.

Definition: A generic coded field for use by entity update-status fields when translating their coded value. The status refers to how up-to-date the data is rather than how much data is stored.

Definition: Not yet ready. The precision to which 28[Altitude - coarse] can be given.

Definition: The upgrade level of the current system software, expressed as numeric digits, where each change to the software takes it to the next consecutive level. The level series is independent of any public 'Version number' series. Comment: (1) This series allows different 'patch' levels to be distinguished without necessarily affecting the public Version Number. (2) Storing this number in the system allows an incoming upgrade to detect the previous upgrade level and take appropriate action. Usage: This field is auto-filled by the system upon each upgrade.

Definition: The version number of the current program, as published.

Notes

   AR = Article in a publication
   AT = Field or attribute
   AV = Field value
   CA = Cave or karst feature
   EN = Entity
   JN = Journal
   OR = Organisation
   PA = Land parcel
   PE = Person
   PH = Photograph
   PL = Plan or map
   PM = Marker (Permanent mark)
   PS = Map series
   RE = Region or area
   RP = Report
   SM = Specimen
   SP = Species
   ST = Site
   SU = Subject
   SV = Survey
   SY = System field
   XK = A key-in batch
   XL = An upload batch
   XU = An update batch

Data type:

   A = Alphanumeric
   N = Numeric; A "real" number allowing decimal places and many significant digits, typically around 15.
   D = Date
   L = Logical; True or False.
   I = Integer (short); A whole number in the range -32,767 to +32,768.
   M = Memo; A variable-length free-text field.
   B = BLOB; A Binary Large Object, e.g. a photo image.

Codes for field coding:

   I = International coding   U = Uncoded   L = Locally coded

   S = Single-valued   M = Multi-valued