Data transformation includes operations such as format changes, structural changes, semantic conversion, de-duplication, and re-ordering. These activities modify source information so that it conforms to the syntactic, structural, or semantic requirements of a target environment.
A format transformation may convert dates from DD/MM/YYYY to an ISO representation. Structural transformation may split, combine, flatten, or restructure attributes. Semantic conversion changes representation while preserving intended meaning—for example, translating a source status code into the standardized enterprise code. De-duplication identifies multiple records representing the same real-world entity, while re-ordering changes the sequence or organization of records or attributes. The listed combination aligns directly with DAMA-oriented transformation guidance.
The distinction from the distractors is important. Organizational change, infrastructure replacement, or application modernization may trigger data transformation, but they are not themselves data-transformation techniques. “Re-duplication” is also inconsistent with the objective of improving integrated datasets.
Transformation is strongly connected to Data Quality. Poorly specified conversion rules can create invalid values, truncate data, introduce semantic inconsistencies, or produce duplicate entities. Consequently, transformations should be documented through mappings and metadata, tested against quality rules, reconciled with source totals, and monitored for exceptions.
Reference Topics: DAMA-DMBOK2 Chapter 8 — Transformation and Mapping; ETL/ELT; Chapter 13 — Standardization, Cleansing, De-duplication and Validation.
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