Attribute-value system

An attribute-value system is a basic knowledge representation framework comprising a table with columns designating "attributes" (also known as "properties", "predicates," "features," "dimensions," "characteristics" or "independent variables" depending on the context) and rows designating "objects" (also known as "entities," "instances," "exemplars," "elements" or "dependent variables."). Each table cell therefore designates the value (also known as "state") of a particular attribute of a particular object.

Example of attribute-value system

Below is a sample attribute-value system. It represents 10 objects (rows) and five features (columns). In this example, the table contains only integer values. In general, an attribute-value system may contain any kind of data, numeric or otherwise. An attribute-value system is distinguished from a simple "feature list" representation in that each feature in an attribute-value system may possess a range of values (e.g., feature [math]\displaystyle{ P_{1} }[/math] below, which has domain of {0,1,2}), rather than simply being present or absent Template:Harv

Sample Attribute-Value System
Object	[math]\displaystyle{ P_{1} }[/math]	[math]\displaystyle{ P_{2} }[/math]	[math]\displaystyle{ P_{3} }[/math]	[math]\displaystyle{ P_{4} }[/math]	[math]\displaystyle{ P_{5} }[/math]
[math]\displaystyle{ O_{1} }[/math]	1	2	0	1	1
[math]\displaystyle{ O_{2} }[/math]	1	2	0	1	1
[math]\displaystyle{ O_{3} }[/math]	2	0	0	1	0
[math]\displaystyle{ O_{4} }[/math]	0	0	1	2	1
[math]\displaystyle{ O_{5} }[/math]	2	1	0	2	1
[math]\displaystyle{ O_{6} }[/math]	0	0	1	2	2
[math]\displaystyle{ O_{7} }[/math]	2	0	0	1	0
[math]\displaystyle{ O_{8} }[/math]	0	1	2	2	1
[math]\displaystyle{ O_{9} }[/math]	2	1	0	2	2
[math]\displaystyle{ O_{10} }[/math]	2	0	0	1	0