FPDS Query Library
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Obligated Amount

Monetary amount obligated on the Other Transaction Award contract detail. It represents the amount currently recorded as committed in FPDS for the award, not necessarily the total ceiling or final outlay.

Family: Other Transaction Award
Category: Dollar Values
Data Type: numeric
Semantic Type: financial
Mapping: flattened_fpds_xml_field
AI Confidence: high

Variable Overview

FPDS Query Variable
content__OtherTransactionAward__contractDetail__dollarValues__obligatedAmount
Title
Obligated Amount
FPDS Path
OtherTransactionAward/contractDetail/dollarValues/obligatedAmount
Description
Monetary amount obligated on the Other Transaction Award contract detail. It represents the amount currently recorded as committed in FPDS for the award, not necessarily the total ceiling or final outlay.
Business Meaning
This field is a core spending measure for tracking federal obligation activity, comparing award values across transactions, and building trend, portfolio, and market-size analyses. Analysts use it to estimate how much funding was committed through Other Transaction Awards in a given period, agency, or vendor set.
Example Value
0
Observed Non-Null Count
38,894

FPDS Compare

FPDS Query Variable
content__OtherTransactionAward__contractDetail__dollarValues__obligatedAmount
FPDS XML Path
OtherTransactionAward/contractDetail/dollarValues/obligatedAmount
Mapping Type
flattened_fpds_xml_field
Comparison Summary
FPDS Query flattens the original nested FPDS XML path 'OtherTransactionAward/contractDetail/dollarValues/obligatedAmount' into the SQL-ready variable 'content__OtherTransactionAward__contractDetail__dollarValues__obligatedAmount'.

Use Cases

  • Dictionary lookup and field explanation
  • SQL filtering and grouping
  • Analytical reporting and reusable query building
  • Spending aggregation and trend analysis

Common Usage

  • Sum obligations by agency, fiscal year, or recipient
  • Compare award magnitude across Other Transaction Awards
  • Filter for nonzero obligated amounts in spending analyses

Common Mistakes

  • Treating obligated amount as the contract ceiling or total potential value
  • Double-counting obligations by summing duplicate or modified award records

Query Guidance

Cast or store as a numeric/decimal field and aggregate with SUM after de-duplicating at the appropriate award grain. Join to award identifiers and date fields for period analysis, and screen for NULLs, zeros, and possible negative adjustments before reporting totals.

SQL Examples

Preview values

SELECT
    content__OtherTransactionAward__contractDetail__dollarValues__obligatedAmount AS obligated_amount
FROM fpds.data
WHERE content__OtherTransactionAward__contractDetail__dollarValues__obligatedAmount IS NOT NULL
LIMIT 25

Aggregate total

SELECT
    sum(content__OtherTransactionAward__contractDetail__dollarValues__obligatedAmount) AS total_value
FROM fpds.data
WHERE content__OtherTransactionAward__contractDetail__dollarValues__obligatedAmount IS NOT NULL

Distribution overview

SELECT
    min(content__OtherTransactionAward__contractDetail__dollarValues__obligatedAmount) AS min_value,
    avg(content__OtherTransactionAward__contractDetail__dollarValues__obligatedAmount) AS avg_value,
    max(content__OtherTransactionAward__contractDetail__dollarValues__obligatedAmount) AS max_value,
    count() AS record_count
FROM fpds.data
WHERE content__OtherTransactionAward__contractDetail__dollarValues__obligatedAmount IS NOT NULL

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