Field note
Should a data dictionary include example values?
Examples can help readers, but copied source values may expose people, locations, rare categories, or confidential identifiers. Prefer invented examples and require an explicit safe-to-publish confirmation.
Do not extract raw examples automatically
The studio never copies a value out of your data into a folio, and it could not: source rows are released after profiling. That is deliberate as well as structural. A packet is made to be circulated, and a value copied into one travels with every copy of it.
Label examples as authored
An example is something you type. Prefer an invented value that shows the shape a reader needs, such as the format of an identifier or the way a date is written, rather than a real value that happens to be typical. Set the safe-to-publish confirmation deliberately, because it is what releases the example into exports.
Omit examples when uncertainty remains
Leave the example empty whenever the answer is not obviously yes. Rare categories, small subgroups, free text, locations and anything about a person are the cases where a single value identifies somebody. An absent example costs your reader one question; a leaked one cannot be recalled.
Worked example from the sample project
The sample ships without example values in its folios, and that is the default the product wants. Examples help readers, and copied source values are the single easiest way to leak something from a documentation file, because a packet is made to be circulated and a value copied into it travels with every copy.
So the studio never extracts an example for you. If you want one you type it, and you set an explicit safe-to-publish confirmation before it appears in any export. Prefer an invented value that shows the shape, and omit the example entirely whenever you are unsure, because an absent example costs a reader a question and a leaked one cannot be recalled.
What this does not do
- The studio extracts no raw example values from imported data, by design.
- It cannot judge whether a value you type is safe to publish.
- An unconfirmed example is withheld from exports rather than published quietly.
Do this in the studio
Invent the example, confirm it, or leave it out.
- Open the Field folios station and type an example that shows the shape without real content.
- Set the safe-to-publish confirmation deliberately.
- Leave the example empty whenever the answer is not obviously yes.
Open the studio at the Field folios station