Attribute-value system Facts for Kids

An attribute-value system is a simple way to organize information. Think of it like a table. It has columns for different "attributes" (also called features or characteristics) and rows for different "objects" (like items or things). Each box in the table shows a specific detail or "value" for an attribute of an object. This helps us understand and compare different things easily.

How Does an Attribute-Value System Work?

Let's look at an example of an attribute-value system. Imagine you have a list of 10 different objects, and you want to describe them using five features. This system uses a table to do just that.

In the example below, the table shows 10 objects (rows) and five features (columns). The values in this table are numbers, but an attribute-value system can hold any kind of information, like words, dates, or other types of data.

What makes this system special is that each feature can have a range of different values. For instance, a feature might be "color," and its values could be "red," "blue," or "green." This is different from a simple checklist where a feature is either just "present" or "absent."

Sample Attribute-Value System
Object	$P_{1}$	$P_{2}$	$P_{3}$	$P_{4}$	$P_{5}$
$O_{1}$	1	2	0	1	1
$O_{2}$	1	2	0	1	1
$O_{3}$	2	0	0	1	0
$O_{4}$	0	0	1	2	1
$O_{5}$	2	1	0	2	1
$O_{6}$	0	0	1	2	2
$O_{7}$	2	0	0	1	0
$O_{8}$	0	1	2	2	1
$O_{9}$	2	1	0	2	2
$O_{10}$	2	0	0	1	0

Other Names for This System

Attribute-value systems are used in many different areas, so they have been called by several other names over time:

Flat data
Spreadsheet
Information system
Classification system
Knowledge representation system
Information table
Object-predicate table
Aristotelian table
Simple frames (Barsalou & Hale 1993)
First normal form database

Barsalou, Lawrence W. & Christopher R. Hale (1993), "Components of conceptual representation: From feature lists to recursive frames", in Iven Van Mechelen, James Hampton, Ryszard S. Michalski, & Peter Theuns, Categories and Concepts: Theoretical Views and Inductive Data Analysis, London: Academic Press

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Attribute-value system Facts for Kids. Kiddle Encyclopedia.

Attribute-value system facts for kids

How Does an Attribute-Value System Work?

Other Names for This System

See Also