Article source: ScribeKey
ScribeKey, LLC, (www.scribekey.com) a Boston area GIS data integration company specializing in metadata and data cleansing, has released version 1 of the GIS Data Profiler. The profiler, an ESRI ™ArcGIS 9 or 10 add-on, captures information describing the structure, contents, and meaning of geospatial datasets. This information, which includes highly detailed, concise descriptions of feature classes, tables, data fields, value lists, indexes, metadata, geodatabase relationships, subtypes, domains, and more, is saved by default in an easy-to-use and share MS Access database. Profile information can also be saved to larger backend databases such as SQL Server or Oracle. The profiler can process Shapefile, Personal Geodatabase, File Geodatabase, SDE, and SDC datasets.
Data profilers, typically found in enterprise business intelligence and decision support environments, are used to help with a wide variety of data-centric projects including dataset revision tracking, data QA/QC, application development, migration and conversion ETL, schema matching, metadata and data dictionary development, and more. Essentially, data profiling provides the ability to generate a highly structured and detailed table of contents and index for a database. Profiling makes it much easier to search through, become familiar with, and make the best use of even the largest data stores.