fieldtofield

Fieldtofield refers to the practice of transferring, transforming, or re-mapping data values from one named field to another within a dataset, data record, or across systems. It is a common concept in data integration, ETL, form processing, and API data exchange, where schemas differ and field names do not align.

Common operations include renaming fields, aliasing, converting values (such as date formats or units), splitting or concatenating fields, and applying conditional routing based on field values. Field-to-field mappings are often defined in a mapping specification or configuration, which guides data pipelines during extraction, transformation, and loading.

Examples: mapping a source field "fname" to a target "first_name," "lname" to "last_name"; converting a "date_of_birth" field from MM/DD/YYYY to YYYY-MM-DD; combining "address_line1" and "address_line2" into a single "address" field; or deriving a "full_name" from "first_name" and "last_name."

Applications include migrating data between databases with different schemas, importing external data feeds, and integrating data across applications with disparate field names. Challenges include handling nulls and missing fields, ensuring type compatibility, maintaining data provenance, and managing evolving schemas and circular mappings.

See also: data mapping, schema mapping, ETL, data integration, data transformation, field aliasing.