FPDS Query Library
About Us
Contact Us

Approved By

User identifier for the person who approved the award transaction in FPDS. It captures the approver associated with the record’s transaction approval step, typically as a username or email-like value rather than a display name.

Family: Award
Category: General
Data Type: string
Semantic Type: attribute
Mapping: flattened_fpds_xml_field
AI Confidence: high

Variable Overview

FPDS Query Variable
content__award__transactionInformation__approvedBy
Title
Approved By
FPDS Path
award/transactionInformation/approvedBy
Description
User identifier for the person who approved the award transaction in FPDS. It captures the approver associated with the record’s transaction approval step, typically as a username or email-like value rather than a display name.
Business Meaning
This field helps analysts trace approval responsibility, review workflow activity, and support audit or governance questions about who authorized changes to procurement records. It can also be useful for operational analysis of review bottlenecks, approval patterns, or agency-specific control processes.
Example Value
SHERRI.DAVIS@SRS.GOV
Observed Non-Null Count
82,242,841

FPDS Compare

FPDS Query Variable
content__award__transactionInformation__approvedBy
FPDS XML Path
award/transactionInformation/approvedBy
Mapping Type
flattened_fpds_xml_field
Comparison Summary
FPDS Query flattens the original nested FPDS XML path 'award/transactionInformation/approvedBy' into the SQL-ready variable 'content__award__transactionInformation__approvedBy'.

Use Cases

  • Dictionary lookup and field explanation
  • SQL filtering and grouping
  • Analytical reporting and reusable query building

Common Usage

  • identify the approver for a specific award transaction
  • group transactions by approving user or account
  • support audit trails and workflow analysis

Common Mistakes

  • assuming it contains the approver's full name
  • treating the value as standardized across agencies or time periods

Query Guidance

Use exact-match or normalized string comparisons for filtering, and consider uppercasing or trimming whitespace before grouping. In SQL, select distinct values to inspect formatting first, and join only after confirming whether the field behaves like an email, login, or free-text account identifier.

SQL Examples

Preview values

SELECT
    content__award__transactionInformation__approvedBy AS approved_by
FROM fpds.data
WHERE content__award__transactionInformation__approvedBy IS NOT NULL
LIMIT 25

Top values

SELECT
    content__award__transactionInformation__approvedBy AS value,
    count() AS record_count
FROM fpds.data
WHERE content__award__transactionInformation__approvedBy IS NOT NULL
GROUP BY value
ORDER BY record_count DESC
LIMIT 25

Each dictionary item includes SQL-ready examples generated alongside the variable metadata, allowing immediate use in FPDS Query for filtering, aggregation, and analysis.