FPDS Query Library
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Materials Supplies Articles Equipment Description

Human-readable description for the paired coded value indicating the status of materials, supplies, articles, or equipment under this IDV legislative mandate element. It explains the underlying code in plain language so the reported status can be understood without decoding abbreviations alone.

Family: IDV
Category: Legislative Mandates
Data Type: string
Semantic Type: description
Mapping: flattened_fpds_xml_field
AI Confidence: high

Variable Overview

FPDS Query Variable
content__IDV__legislativeMandates__materialsSuppliesArticlesEquipment__description
Title
Materials Supplies Articles Equipment Description
FPDS Path
IDV/legislativeMandates/materialsSuppliesArticlesEquipment/description
Description
Human-readable description for the paired coded value indicating the status of materials, supplies, articles, or equipment under this IDV legislative mandate element. It explains the underlying code in plain language so the reported status can be understood without decoding abbreviations alone.
Business Meaning
This field helps analysts interpret whether an IDV action involves materials, supplies, articles, or equipment and how that status was recorded for legislative mandate reporting. It is useful for compliance review, category analysis, and validation of coded mandate data across awards.
Example Value
NOT APPLICABLE
Observed Non-Null Count
5,862,015

FPDS Compare

FPDS Query Variable
content__IDV__legislativeMandates__materialsSuppliesArticlesEquipment__description
FPDS XML Path
IDV/legislativeMandates/materialsSuppliesArticlesEquipment/description
Mapping Type
flattened_fpds_xml_field
Comparison Summary
FPDS Query flattens the original nested FPDS XML path 'IDV/legislativeMandates/materialsSuppliesArticlesEquipment/description' into the SQL-ready variable 'content__IDV__legislativeMandates__materialsSuppliesArticlesEquipment__description'.

Use Cases

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

Common Usage

  • Interpreting mandate status for award-level reporting
  • Validating coded FPDS values against human-readable labels
  • Summarizing legislative mandate attributes in dashboards

Common Mistakes

  • Using the description as if it were the authoritative code for joins or filters
  • Assuming identical wording across agencies means identical underlying coded values

Query Guidance

Use this field for display, QA checks, and text-based review; in SQL, join or filter on the paired coded field when available, then select this description for readability in result sets. If only the description is present, normalize carefully with case-insensitive comparisons and inspect distinct values before aggregating.

SQL Examples

Preview values

SELECT
    content__IDV__legislativeMandates__materialsSuppliesArticlesEquipment__description AS materials_supplies_articles_equipment_description
FROM fpds.data
WHERE content__IDV__legislativeMandates__materialsSuppliesArticlesEquipment__description IS NOT NULL
LIMIT 25

Top values

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