I didn’t read much about data contracts, but, at the very least, I understand that they are a way to define the structure of data that is being exchanged between different systems or components. They can be used to ensure that the data being sent and received is in the correct format and contains the necessary information.
If you are processing a certain data asset, and you want to make sure that the data you are passing to other systems or components is in the correct format and contains the necessary information, you can use a data contract to know what to expect from the data and how to handle it properly. Suppose you are working with a data asset and all you need are customer_id, customer_name, and customer_email. The worst thing you can do is to pass the entire data asset to the next system or component, which may contain a lot of unnecessary information that can cause confusion and errors. What if the next system or component is not designed to handle the additional information, or if it is not clear which information is relevant and which is not? This can lead to problems such as data corruption, data loss, or even security breaches. By using a data contract, you can specify that only the necessary information is being passed, which can help to improve the efficiency and reliability of the data processing. Therefore, we can create a data contract that specifies:
- the path to an object
- the key in the object that contains the relevant information
- the name of the information from the perspective of the next system or component
- the type of the information (e.g., string, integer, etc.)
# Example of a data contract
# tuple format: (path_to_object, key_in_object, name_of_information, type_of_information)
DATA_CONTRACT = [
('A.customerID', None, 'customer_id', 'integer'),
('B.name', None, 'customer_name', 'string'),
('C.email_address', 0, 'customer_email', 'string')
]
In this example, the data contract specifies that the customer_id is located at the path A.customerID, the customer_name is located at the path B.name, and the customer_email is located at the path C.email_address and is the first element in a list. By using this data contract, we can ensure that we are only passing the necessary information to the next system or component. So, the next system knows exactly what columns to expect and what types of data they will contain! Any change from upstream that affects the data contract will be immediately apparent, and we can take action to address it before it causes any problems.
I hope that this simple example helps to illustrate the concept of a data contract and how it can be used to ensure that data is being exchanged in a consistent and reliable way.