Download code lists (in Danish only) at the STANDAT Library (Standatbiblioteket).

Code lists are the most important components of the STANDAT concept. An example of a code list could be the list of numbers used by the Danish municipalities or a list of all the postal codes in Denmark. The code lists determine which code should be used for a particular type of information. The code lists also provide a framework for which items of information can be exchanged, the correlation between one information item and another, the format the information uses, and – in some cases – the possible values an information item can assume.

The STANDAT Secretariat is responsible for ensuring consistency in the content of the code lists. This means that all updates of the code lists must be processed by the secretariat. Updates of any environmental code lists are sent to the relevant scientific data centres to be approved.

Changes to the code lists that are approved by the STANDAT Secretariat are included in the following half-yearly STANDAT update. The application deadlines are 1 March for the spring update and 1 November for the autumn update. The updated code lists are made available on the website on approximately 1 April and 1 December. If you have an urgent need to make a change in the value code lists, you must notify the STANDAT Secretariat in writing. If such an urgent entry is not considered scientifically responsible during the subsequent processing, the STANDAT Secretariat can make the decision to delete the new entry. Urgent changes in the value code lists first become definite when they are published in the following half-yearly edition of the STANDAT code lists.

There are four different types of code lists: the subject code list, the information type code list, the combination code list and the value code lists.

Subject code list

This code list describes which subjects (data groups) can be exchanged using STANDAT. In this context, a subject is defined as a set of logically coherent items of information. For example, STANDAT includes a subject that describes a company. This subject contains administrative information such as the address, the owner and similar details about a particular company.

Information type code list

This code list describes the information that can be included in a subject. In STANDAT, such information is called information types. With information types, frameworks (codes) are determined for the types of information a subject can include. Information types also describe the format of the information, and any set of values for the information.

Combination code list

For each subject in the subject code list, the combination code list describes the information types the subject contains. This code list consists of two fields: the subject number and the type number.

Value code lists

These code lists describe which values selected information types can assume. For example, a value code list could be STD00002, which describes all the postal codes in Denmark. And information type 00000756 in the type code list refers to this value code list, which means that the values stated for information type 00000756 can only be transferred if the values are contained in the value code list STD00002. There are currently about 200 different value code lists in STANDAT.