A data element is an atomic data unit in data management, which is derived from operational reality as information requirements in a given context (whether it is limited to the area of a project by a company) or is determined by content.
For example, the description includes the following: A data item is identified by:
• A data element name,
• Has a data element definition appropriate to the purpose of use; What does the data element mean?
• Has one or more representation terms; Where, in which data class (s) does it occur?
• Optionally has a listing of the allowed values,
• Optionally has a list of synonyms in other metadata directories
Data elements do not contain data, but merely describe which data fields can occur in the specific data sets, what they mean, and which formal conditions apply to them. These "metadata" are used automatically or by manual entries during the software development during the data signaling and during the declaration of the data to be processed in the program code.
Data elements can be discovered and analyzed by manually or semi-automatically inspecting application programs, files, or even textual solutions (such as workbooks, manuals, etc.).
In a different meaning, as a 'data element', for example, attributes / variables are also referred to in the declaration in certain programming languages. Also, the expression is used as a synonym for data field.
After making a scientific definition of "element", now we can rest a little bit and take a look at a song with same name element and change our view for a word from one aspect to another.