FPDS Query Library
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Department Name

Human-readable name of the funding requesting agency associated with the purchaser information in an Other Transaction Award record. It is the text label tied to the underlying agency identifier, not a separate transaction attribute.

Family: Other Transaction Award
Category: Purchaser Information
Data Type: string
Semantic Type: label
Mapping: flattened_fpds_xml_field
AI Confidence: high

Variable Overview

FPDS Query Variable
content__OtherTransactionAward__contractDetail__purchaserInformation__fundingRequestingAgencyID__departmentName
Title
Department Name
FPDS Path
OtherTransactionAward/contractDetail/purchaserInformation/fundingRequestingAgencyID/departmentName
Description
Human-readable name of the funding requesting agency associated with the purchaser information in an Other Transaction Award record. It is the text label tied to the underlying agency identifier, not a separate transaction attribute.
Business Meaning
This field identifies which department is associated with the entity requesting or funding the procurement action, which helps analysts attribute spending, compare activity across agencies, and group awards by departmental source. It is useful for rollups and validation when agency codes are present but not easily interpretable.
Example Value
DEPT OF DEFENSE
Observed Non-Null Count
38,062

FPDS Compare

FPDS Query Variable
content__OtherTransactionAward__contractDetail__purchaserInformation__fundingRequestingAgencyID__departmentName
FPDS XML Path
OtherTransactionAward/contractDetail/purchaserInformation/fundingRequestingAgencyID/departmentName
Mapping Type
flattened_fpds_xml_field
Comparison Summary
FPDS Query flattens the original nested FPDS XML path 'OtherTransactionAward/contractDetail/purchaserInformation/fundingRequestingAgencyID/departmentName' into the SQL-ready variable 'content__OtherTransactionAward__contractDetail__purchaserInformation__fundingRequestingAgencyID__departmentName'.

Use Cases

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

Common Usage

  • Group awards by funding requesting department
  • Validate or interpret the associated agency ID
  • Create readable reports and filters by agency name

Common Mistakes

  • Using the label as a unique key instead of the agency ID
  • Assuming different spellings or abbreviations represent different agencies

Query Guidance

Use this field for display, filtering, and high-level grouping, but join and deduplicate on the underlying agency code when possible. In SQL, normalize case and trim whitespace if comparing names, and prefer DISTINCT or GROUP BY on the coded identifier rather than this text label.

SQL Examples

Preview values

SELECT
    content__OtherTransactionAward__contractDetail__purchaserInformation__fundingRequestingAgencyID__departmentName AS department_name
FROM fpds.data
WHERE content__OtherTransactionAward__contractDetail__purchaserInformation__fundingRequestingAgencyID__departmentName IS NOT NULL
LIMIT 25

Top values

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