Attributes versus Fields 

In MDM, an attribute is like a field, but one that applies only to a subset of the records in a table. By contrast, a field is part of every record in a table. If a particular attribute can be applied to every product in a repository, then it should be set up as a field in the main table. For example, every product in a repository probably has an item number; therefore “Item Number” should be defined in the database as a field, and not as an attribute.