Field Lineage
Trace where columns come from, how they are referenced, and which relationships may exist.
Field Lineage helps answer a common question: where does a column's data come from, and what might depend on it? Use it to understand complex schemas, inspect impact, and read legacy structures.
Field Lineage is enabled for MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQLite, SQL Server, Oracle, Redshift, DM, and GaussDB. Other engines may not expose enough relationship metadata for DBX to build useful lineage.
What It Helps With
- Before changing a column, see which tables, views, or queries may depend on it
- Understand relationships in an unfamiliar database
- Trace where report fields may originate
- Discover possible relationships that are not declared as foreign keys
Relationship Sources
| Source | Confidence | Details |
|---|---|---|
| Foreign keys | High | Constraints declared in the database |
| Views | High | Field mappings analyzed from view definitions |
| Query history | Medium | Relationships inferred from executed SQL, including JOIN and WHERE usage |
| Same-name columns | Low to medium | Possible relationships inferred from similar column names |
Field Lineage is an analysis aid, not a strongly governed lineage platform. For critical decisions, confirm results with database constraints, view definitions, and application code.
Navigation
- Search by table or column name
- Filter relationships by confidence
- Click a table or column to open data or structure views
- Start from one column and inspect upstream or downstream relationships
Recommendations
- Treat foreign key and view relationships as the strongest signals
- Review query-history and same-name inferences carefully
- Before changing a column, combine lineage with schema diff and application code search
- For important business fields, add database constraints or documentation comments where possible