Difference Between Columns, metadata, keyword , field

Question

I am a bit confused about terminology. In SharePoint we have a List and it consists of List columns but I have read in one of the site that this can be meta data too.

Taking an example if we have a SharePoint list and if we have a List Columns with name, Job description, age and Income, will this be termed as column, field or metadata?

If this is metadata then how can you define fields/columns/site column?

Answer 1

• You may know that Meta Data is nothing but data about data.
• In share point context Meta Data can be used as list column also. Consider any excel documents which are classified using Phase , Category, Document Type etc. So when ever you see these columns you can identify what kind of document it is.
• As per my knowledge key words are nothing but taxonomy. By using these keywords you can classify the items.
• Site Column is different. Site Column can be used as list column in any list. For eg. Consider the Age. In your site you are using Age column repeatedly in your lists/libraries. So instead of creating Age column in each list you can create only one site column and you can add to required list. In simple words reusable purpose.
• Fields are nothing but a columns/site columns. These are related to list.

Answer 2

As Mihir states, the word "metadata" means "data about data". So to have metadata you need to have data. In SharePoint the most relevant example would be documents. Documents are data and you can have data (metadata) about these documents. Mihirs Excel example is an example of this. Say, you want a document library in SharePoint and these documents have a document type chosen from a list of choices. To achieve this you need to be able to put a document type on the documents. Since Document libraries in SharePoint is a special kind of list, you can create columns=fields on the list - and the data in these columns becomes metadata for your document. So on the library you create a field, DocumentType, e.g. as a choice field. The field is setup with possible choices for the document type. So the list fields/columns are used to define metadata on the document(s). When it comes to pure SP lists it becomes more difficult to talk about metadata. For what is it data about? In case of an employee I don't think you can define it as metadata, expect if you treat the physical person as "the data". However, I don't think it technical make a difference. You have your datamodel of the employees and implement it using SP lists - that's what they are there for!