FPDS Query Library
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Solicitation Procedures

Flag or coded value indicating the solicitation procedure associated with an IDV record. In FPDS, this field captures the solicitation procedure used and may appear as an abbreviated code such as "NP" rather than a full text description.

Family: IDV
Category: Competition
Data Type: boolean_or_code_flag
Semantic Type: flag
Mapping: flattened_fpds_xml_field
AI Confidence: high

Variable Overview

FPDS Query Variable
content__IDV__competition__solicitationProcedures
Title
Solicitation Procedures
FPDS Path
IDV/competition/solicitationProcedures
Description
Flag or coded value indicating the solicitation procedure associated with an IDV record. In FPDS, this field captures the solicitation procedure used and may appear as an abbreviated code such as "NP" rather than a full text description.
Business Meaning
This field helps analysts segment awards by how the government solicited the requirement, which is important for competition analysis, acquisition policy review, and compliance monitoring. It can reveal whether an action followed a particular solicitation pathway and support comparisons across competition categories and procurement methods.
Example Value
NP
Observed Non-Null Count
3,800,131

FPDS Compare

FPDS Query Variable
content__IDV__competition__solicitationProcedures
FPDS XML Path
IDV/competition/solicitationProcedures
Mapping Type
flattened_fpds_xml_field
Comparison Summary
FPDS Query flattens the original nested FPDS XML path 'IDV/competition/solicitationProcedures' into the SQL-ready variable 'content__IDV__competition__solicitationProcedures'.

Use Cases

  • Dictionary lookup and field explanation
  • SQL filtering and grouping
  • Analytical reporting and reusable query building
  • Competition and sole-source analysis

Common Usage

  • Filter IDV records by solicitation procedure code
  • Group awards by solicitation pathway for competition analysis
  • Validate compliance with acquisition reporting requirements

Common Mistakes

  • Interpreting the value as a plain-English description without checking the code set
  • Using it as a binary indicator when it may contain multiple coded values

Query Guidance

Use equality or IN predicates against the stored code values, and join to a lookup or decode table if one exists to translate abbreviations into readable labels. When aggregating, group by the code field rather than attempting text matching, and avoid filtering on partial strings unless you have confirmed the coding scheme.

SQL Examples

Preview values

SELECT
    content__IDV__competition__solicitationProcedures AS solicitation_procedures
FROM fpds.data
WHERE content__IDV__competition__solicitationProcedures IS NOT NULL
LIMIT 25

Flag distribution

SELECT
    content__IDV__competition__solicitationProcedures AS flag_value,
    count() AS record_count
FROM fpds.data
WHERE content__IDV__competition__solicitationProcedures IS NOT NULL
GROUP BY flag_value
ORDER BY record_count DESC

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