FPDS Query Library
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Vendor Doing as Business Name

Text field containing the vendor's Doing Business As (DBA) name in the award record. It is the human-readable operating name associated with the vendor entity, which may differ from the legal business name.

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__vendorDoingAsBusinessName
Title
Vendor Doing as Business Name
FPDS Path
award/vendor/vendorHeader/vendorDoingAsBusinessName
Description
Text field containing the vendor's Doing Business As (DBA) name in the award record. It is the human-readable operating name associated with the vendor entity, which may differ from the legal business name.
Business Meaning
This field helps analysts identify the market-facing name used by a contractor across awards, subsidiaries, and branding variations. It is useful for consolidating vendor activity, matching awards to external company names, and spotting cases where the legal entity and public-facing name do not align.
Example Value
BECHTEL
Observed Non-Null Count
4,976,189

FPDS Compare

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

Use Cases

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

Common Usage

  • Group awards by vendor operating name
  • Match FPDS records to external company or brand names
  • Review naming consistency across award records

Common Mistakes

  • Treating DBA name as a unique identifier
  • Assuming it is always the same as the legal vendor name

Query Guidance

Select and trim this field for presentation or name-based grouping, but join and deduplicate using vendor identifiers rather than the DBA string. In SQL, normalize case and whitespace when comparing values, and use COALESCE only as a fallback label when the field is missing.

SQL Examples

Preview values

SELECT
    content__award__vendor__vendorHeader__vendorDoingAsBusinessName AS vendor_doing_as_business_name
FROM fpds.data
WHERE content__award__vendor__vendorHeader__vendorDoingAsBusinessName IS NOT NULL
LIMIT 25

Top values

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