Profiling by meta type

You can specify whether metadata type information should be used when profiling by enabling or disabling the Profile By Meta Type check box on the Profiling Options window.

Profile By Meta Type enabled is usually the desired behavior. Data types associated with fields containing dates, money, telephone numbers, and other numeric information are correctly sorted and binned using the metadata information, rather than sorting purely based on ASCII text.

For example, the following table shows a date field sorted using meta type information and without. Profiling done without using meta type produces results sorted purely numerically, while profiling done using meta type recognizes that the data are formatted as dates, and sorts them accordingly.

Profiled by Meta Type	Profiled Without using Meta Type
25-DEC-2006	20-FEB-2007
20-FEB-2007	20-MAR-2007
20-MAR-2007	25-DEC-2006