Meaning of the word "Attribute"
Literally, the word attribute is a noun and means a quality or characteristic that someone or something has.
In computing, an attribute is a specification that defines a property of an object, element, or file. It may also. For clarity, attributes should more correctly be considered metadata. An attribute is generally a property of a property. However, in actual usage,an attribute refers to or set the specific values for a given instance An attribute of an object usually consists of a name and a value; of an element, a type or class name; of a file, a name and extension.
- Each named attribute has an associated set of rules called operations: one doesn't sum characters or manipulate and process an integer array as an image object—one doesn't process text as type floating point (decimal numbers).
- It follows that an object definition can be extended by imposing data typing: a representation format, a default value, and legal operations (rules) and restrictions ("Division by zero is not to be tolerated!") are all potentially involved in defining an attribute, or conversely, may be spoken of as attributes of that object's type. A JPEG file is not decoded by the same operations (however similar they may be—these are all graphics data formats) as a PNG or BMP file, nor is a floating point typed number operated upon by the rules applied to typed long integers.
For example, in computer graphics, line objects can have attributes such as thickness (with real values), color (with descriptive values such as brown or green or values defined in a certain color model, such as RGB), dashing attributes, etc. A circle object can be defined in similar attributes plus an origin and radius. In reference to computer systems.
In OpenMRS, the meaning attribute is of no difference to its literal meaning. Every attribute corresponds to a AttributeType, which defines, among other things, whether it is required, whether it may repeat, and how it is serialized and deserialized for storage. These attribute types are intended for use in cases that would involve adding custom columns to the base table in a less generic system.
For example:
- Visit has VisitAttributes that are defined by VisitAttributeTypes
- Person has Person has PersonAttributes that are defined by PersonAttributeTypes.
- Concept has ConceptAttributes that are defined by ConceptAttributeTypes
- Provider has ProviderAttributes that are defined by ProviderAttributeTypes
- Location has LocationAttributes that are defined by LocationAttributeTypes
resorces
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attribute_(computing)
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/attribute