4.11 Key-Value Format

Columns that provide Key-Value information are often used in place of separate columns for enumerating data which would be inherently sparse and/or without predetermined keys. This consolidates related information and provides more consistency in the schema. Key-value pairs are also referred to as name-value pairs, attribute-value pairs, or field-value pairs.

Column conforming to KeyValueFormat attribute MUST adhere to the following requirements:

• FOCUS dataset column MUST be a serialized JSON string, consistent with the ECMA 404 definition of an object.
• Keys in FOCUS dataset column MUST be unique within the object.
• Key values in FOCUS dataset column MUST be of type number, string, boolean (true or false), or null.
• Key values in FOCUS dataset column MUST NOT be objects or arrays.

Rules and formatting requirements for columns appearing in a FOCUS dataset that convey data as key-value pairs.