datafrom

Datafrom is a term used in data management to denote the origin or source of a data value within a dataset or data pipeline. In practice, datafrom may be recorded as metadata attached to individual fields or records to indicate the upstream system, file, table, or transformation that produced the value. It is closely related to data provenance and data lineage, but is typically more granular and field-oriented, focusing on where a particular data element came from rather than the complete end-to-end path.

In ETL and ELT pipelines, datafrom helps trace data quality issues and supports impact analysis, by allowing users to see whether a value originated in a source system, a data cleaning step, or a derived computation. Implementations vary; some systems store datafrom as a string, a structured object, or a set of key-value pairs such as source_table, source_file, and transformation_id. Data catalogs and governance tools can expose datafrom as part of metadata records for datasets and columns.

Limitations include lack of standard definition, inconsistent naming, and potential for changes across pipeline versions. It is most effective when used as part of a formal data governance program and combined with broader lineage tracking and quality metadata.

See also data provenance, data lineage, metadata, ETL, data catalog, data governance.