adatjelet

Adatjelet is a term used in data management and information technology to refer to a data flag or indicator that accompanies a data value to convey its status, quality, or provenance. The concept helps downstream processes decide how to treat a given value, such as whether it should be used, ignored, or handled specially.

Etymology and usage notes: The word combines adat (data) and jel (signal or flag) in Hungarian. In everyday Hungarian technical writing, the more common form is adatjel; adatjelet is a variant or inflected form used in certain grammatical contexts. In practice, an adatjelet appears as a separate field or as part of a value’s metadata.

Applications: Adatjelek are widely used in data collection, telemetry, and sensor networks to label observations with reliability or processing status. They can be represented as numeric codes, textual meanings, or as bit flags within a compact encoding. Typical meanings include valid, missing, interpolated, estimated, suspect, or out of range.

Coding schemes: Flag meanings are defined by data producers or standards and may vary between domains. Numeric flag codes are common, with fixed mappings such as 0 for good data, 1 for missing, 2 for interpolated, and so on. Some systems employ bitwise flags where each bit encodes a distinct condition.

Relation to data quality: Adatjelek are a key element of data quality metadata, enabling users to assess suitability for analysis and to automate quality control workflows. They complement descriptive metadata and provenance information.

See also: Data quality flag, metadata, data validation, telemetry.