Attribute (computing)

In computing, an attribute is a specification that defines a property of an object, element, or file. It may also refer to or set the specific value for a given instance of such. For clarity, attributes should more correctly be considered metadata. An attribute is frequently and generally a property of a property. However, in actual usage, the term attribute can and is often treated as equivalent to a property depending on the technology being discussed. An attribute of an object usually consists of a name and a value. For an element these can be a type and class name, while for a file these can be a name and an extension, respectively. Rules: Each named attribute has an associated set of rules called operations: For example, one doesn't sum characters or manipulate and process an integer array the same way as an image object. Neither does one process text as if it was type of floating point (decimal numbers). Data types: It follows that an object definition can be extended by imposing data typing which can consist of a representation format, a default value, and legal operations (rules) and restrictions (e.g. "division by zero is not to be tolerated") are all potentially involved in defining an attribute, or conversely one may view them as attributes of that object's type. Picture file formats (for example JPEG, PNG and BMP) are not decoded using the same operations (however similar the images look — these are all graphics data formats). Similarly, a programming language does not use the same operations to evaluate a floating point typed number and typed long integers. For example, in computer graphics, line objects can have attributes such as thickness (with real values), color (with descriptive values such as brown or green or values defined in a certain color model, such as RGB), dashing attributes, etc. A circle object can be defined in similar attributes plus an origin and radius. In reference to computer systems, attributes are defined particularly for read or write attributes for specific read or write.