Indicator (metadata)
Boolean value in metadata that may contain only the values true or false
title: "Indicator (metadata)" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["metadata", "representation-term"] description: "Boolean value in metadata that may contain only the values true or false" topic_path: "general/metadata" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indicator_(metadata)" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::summary Boolean value in metadata that may contain only the values true or false ::
In metadata, an indicator is a Boolean value that may contain only the values true or false. The definition of an Indicator must include the meaning of a true value and should also include the meaning if the value is false.
If a data element may take another value to represent e.g. unknown or not applicable, then a Code should be used instead of an Indicator, and the meanings of all possible values should be clearly defined.
The suffix Indicator is used in ISO/IEC 11179 metadata registry standard as a representation term.
Example of Use of Indicator in XML
An example use of the Indicator suffix is if an XML document was required to contain the passing status of a Student in a statewide assessment. The data element would be:
Standards that use the indicator representation term
The following metadata registry standards use the term indicator
References
https://web.archive.org/web/20110927233605/https://www.niem.gov/documentsdb/Documents/Technical/NIEM-NDR-1-3.pdf page 65 ::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::