FPDS Query Library
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First Name

Stores the first name of the alternate principal investigator named on a NASA-specific award element. This is a text label field for the person identified as the alternate principal investigator, not a coded status or amount.

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

Variable Overview

FPDS Query Variable
content__award__agencySpecificAwardElements__NASASpecificAwardElements__alternatePrincipalInvestigator__firstName
Title
First Name
FPDS Path
award/agencySpecificAwardElements/NASASpecificAwardElements/alternatePrincipalInvestigator/firstName
Description
Stores the first name of the alternate principal investigator named on a NASA-specific award element. This is a text label field for the person identified as the alternate principal investigator, not a coded status or amount.
Business Meaning
This field helps analysts identify and distinguish the alternate principal investigator associated with a NASA award when reviewing award roles, responsibility assignments, or institutional points of contact. It can support personnel-level analysis across NASA awards, especially when validating who is named in key scientific or technical oversight roles.
Example Value
_2124749677_MTQwMzA1
Observed Non-Null Count
15,342

FPDS Compare

FPDS Query Variable
content__award__agencySpecificAwardElements__NASASpecificAwardElements__alternatePrincipalInvestigator__firstName
FPDS XML Path
award/agencySpecificAwardElements/NASASpecificAwardElements/alternatePrincipalInvestigator/firstName
Mapping Type
flattened_fpds_xml_field
Comparison Summary
FPDS Query flattens the original nested FPDS XML path 'award/agencySpecificAwardElements/NASASpecificAwardElements/alternatePrincipalInvestigator/firstName' into the SQL-ready variable 'content__award__agencySpecificAwardElements__NASASpecificAwardElements__alternatePrincipalInvestigator__firstName'.

Use Cases

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

Common Usage

  • identifying the alternate principal investigator named on a NASA award
  • joining or validating personnel names across award-level NASA-specific elements
  • displaying investigator name components in award detail outputs

Common Mistakes

  • treating the value as a unique identifier instead of a name component
  • using it alone to match people without last name or other identifiers

Query Guidance

Select this field with the paired last-name and related investigator fields when building person-level outputs. Filter out nulls or blank strings as needed, and avoid using it as a join key unless combined with additional name fields or a normalized person identifier.

SQL Examples

Preview values

SELECT
    content__award__agencySpecificAwardElements__NASASpecificAwardElements__alternatePrincipalInvestigator__firstName AS first_name
FROM fpds.data
WHERE content__award__agencySpecificAwardElements__NASASpecificAwardElements__alternatePrincipalInvestigator__firstName IS NOT NULL
LIMIT 25

Top values

SELECT
    content__award__agencySpecificAwardElements__NASASpecificAwardElements__alternatePrincipalInvestigator__firstName AS value,
    count() AS record_count
FROM fpds.data
WHERE content__award__agencySpecificAwardElements__NASASpecificAwardElements__alternatePrincipalInvestigator__firstName 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.