FPDS Query Library
About Us
Contact Us

Vendor Alternate Name

Human-readable alternate name recorded for the vendor in the award header. It is a label field, not a unique identifier, and may capture a trade name, legacy name, or other alternate vendor label associated with the award record.

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

Variable Overview

FPDS Query Variable
content__award__vendor__vendorHeader__vendorAlternateName
Title
Vendor Alternate Name
FPDS Path
award/vendor/vendorHeader/vendorAlternateName
Description
Human-readable alternate name recorded for the vendor in the award header. It is a label field, not a unique identifier, and may capture a trade name, legacy name, or other alternate vendor label associated with the award record.
Business Meaning
This field helps analysts recognize vendors when the legal or registered name differs from the name shown in procurement documents, historical systems, or reporting extracts. It supports vendor matching, normalization, and review of awards where the same entity appears under multiple names.
Example Value
BECHTEL
Observed Non-Null Count
28,667,890

FPDS Compare

FPDS Query Variable
content__award__vendor__vendorHeader__vendorAlternateName
FPDS XML Path
award/vendor/vendorHeader/vendorAlternateName
Mapping Type
flattened_fpds_xml_field
Comparison Summary
FPDS Query flattens the original nested FPDS XML path 'award/vendor/vendorHeader/vendorAlternateName' into the SQL-ready variable 'content__award__vendor__vendorHeader__vendorAlternateName'.

Use Cases

  • Dictionary lookup and field explanation
  • SQL filtering and grouping
  • Analytical reporting and reusable query building
  • Contractor profiling and competitor analysis

Common Usage

  • Reconciling vendor names across awards and reporting systems
  • Supporting vendor de-duplication and entity resolution
  • Displaying a readable vendor label in dashboards or extracts

Common Mistakes

  • Using the alternate name as a unique vendor identifier
  • Assuming the field always matches the legal or registered vendor name

Query Guidance

Use this field as a text attribute for filtering, grouping, or display, and pair it with vendor identifiers when joining or deduplicating records. In SQL, normalize case and whitespace if comparing values, and expect blanks, aliases, or nonstandard abbreviations; do not rely on exact text matches without validation against vendor IDs or other name fields.

SQL Examples

Preview values

SELECT
    content__award__vendor__vendorHeader__vendorAlternateName AS vendor_alternate_name
FROM fpds.data
WHERE content__award__vendor__vendorHeader__vendorAlternateName IS NOT NULL
LIMIT 25

Top values

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