Division 1 The form of the data

The data is sent as a set of records of which a large part describes the characteristics of the data (country, year, economic activity etc.). The data itself is a number which can be linked to flags and explanatory footnotes used for example to describe aggregations of NACE codes. Confidential data should be sent with the true value being recorded in the value field and a flag indicating the nature of the confidential data being added to the record.

In order to be precise about the nature of the data, it is necessary to distinguish the following special cases:

• data equal to zero (coded ‘0’): real values of zero only (the phenomenon it describes does not exist in the country),

• missing data (coded ‘m’): this is data which is currently missing but the Member State intends to supply when available,

• data not available: this is data which is not collected in a Member State. In this case, the corresponding record is not sent.

By default, if an entire dimension (a variable, a NUTS code, a Size Class code etc.) is not collected then the corresponding records will not exist (except for those which are missing because they form part of a regrouping of NACE codes. This is why it is important to distinguish data which is really missing by supplying a record (one per missing item) in which the data value is coded as ‘m’, and data which is really equal to zero by supplying the corresponding records in which the data value is set to 0.