About Entities - trillium_discovery - trillium_quality - 17.1

An entity is a repository object that is analogous to a table or file stored in a physical data source. Entities contain attributes and rows that correspond to the data physically stored in a file or table. There are two types of entities: dynamic and real.

• A dynamic entity is a table or file that resides in an external data source and is not imported into a repository. When you work with a dynamic entity, you are working directly with the physical data stored in a database, table or file.

The benefit of working with dynamic entities is that you are working with data that you know is current for the activity you are performing. Data auditing is fast and efficient, particularly when a single pass for business rule validation is required.

• A real entity is a virtual copy of the physical data stored in an external data source and is created when you import data into a repository. When you create an entity by importing data to a repository, all data tasks reference a copy of your physical data. This is important to understand, because if your physical data changes, you must create a new entity to represent the most current data. You can also create an entity from a data source on your client system. without the need of a loader connection to the repository.