The technical lineage graph

The technical lineage graph consists of nodes and edges. Each node represents a corresponding object in a data source. Each edge shows a relation between nodes.

Nodes and edges in the technical lineage graph show how data flows from source to destination. A clearer understanding of nodes and edges enhances your technical lineage experience.

Consider the following visual elements in the technical lineage graph:

• Relation types
• Colors
• Icons
• Arrows
• Collapsed attributes menu
• Right-click menu
• SELECT statements that result in "-RES" tables in the lineage

Relation types

The technical lineage graph shows relations between columns in the graph. Collibra Data Lineage creates and shows the following relation type between stitched assets and other data objects:

Head	Role	Co-role	Tail	Public ID
Data Element	targets	sources	Data Element	DataElementTargetsDataElement

Colors

The technical lineage graph shows different colors to indicate which data objects are stitched to assets in Data Catalog and which are not.

Background colors

The background color of a node indicates whether or not the data object was stitched to an asset in Data Catalog, and whether something went wrong.

A node has one of the following background colors:

Color	Description
Yellow	Data objects from your data source that are stitched to assets in Data Catalog
Gray	Data objects, for example temporary tables and columns, that Collibra Data Lineage collects from your data sources, but are not stitched to assets in Data Catalog.

Since a technical lineage shows how data flows from source to destination, it is possible to see a lineage graph with yellow and gray nodes.

Font colors

The font color of a data object in the technical lineage graph indicates whether there is a relation between this data object and one or more other data objects.

A node has one of two font colors:

Color	Description
Black	At least one direct or indirect relation exists between the data object and another. Tip When a column flows from one table to another, the lineage reflects the direct dependency between the column in the source table and the column in the target table. This is considered a direct lineage. An indirect lineage, on the other hand, shows indirect dependencies. For example, if a JOIN clause is used in a query, the columns in the resulting view are generated by the JOIN clause; in other words, by an indirect dependency, not an actual flow of data.
Gray	No relation exists between the data object and another.

Icons

CPSH uses the following icon in the technical lineage graph.

Icon	Description
	The name of a table was found by the full-text search in the source code on which the analysis failed. Consequently, the lineage flow of the table is probably incomplete. If you click Show failed SQLs on the right click menu of the table, the failed SQL queries appear in the source code pane at the bottom of the page.
	A relation for the data objects exists, but it isn't shown, for example because you set the technical lineage flow depth to a lower value than the actual graph size.

Arrows

Arrows are incoming or outgoing edges that show how the data flows from source to destination. They represent relations of the type "Data Element sources / targets Data Element".

There are two ways in which an arrow can be shown:

Arrow type	Description
Single	Shows the full lineage without skipping certain data objects.
Dot	Shows that there are hidden data objects in the technical lineage graph. This happens when only the endpoints of the technical lineage flow are shown.

Example The following Technical lineage graph shows the edge with a dot, which indicates that there are other nodes between these nodes in the full technical lineage flow.

Collapsed attributes menu

If you select a specific column in a table with multiple columns, you can right-click the column and click Collapsed attributes to show all other columns or only the selected columns in the same table.

Right-click menu

If you right-click a node, you can perform several specific actions on that node.

Functionality	Description
Column/Table lineage	Switch to the technical lineage graph of the selected column or table.
Transformation (IN)	Show the transformation logic of the incoming source code fragments in the source code pane.
Transformation (OUT)	Show the transformation logic of the outgoing source code fragments in the source code pane.
Lineage tree	Show an alternative way to view the flow of data objects, called the lineage tree. The lineage tree is particularly useful if there are many nodes in a lineage. It enables you to see the entire lineage in one pop-up, which means you no longer have to scroll through the technical lineage graph to see the full lineage. The lineage tree uses arrows to visualize the traceability of data objects: Forward arrows (→) represent incoming edges. Backward arrows (←) represent outgoing edges.
Custom features	When the lineage flow of the table is incomplete or there is an issue in the source code of a data object, the right-click menu shows the Show failed SQLs option. If you click this option, the source code pane opens and shows the SQL queries that failed.

SELECT statements that result in "-RES" tables in the lineage

If you have SQL SELECT statements like the following, the results are not put into a table because they are not used in a DDL or DML query, such as INSERT or CREATE VIEW AS.

SELECT username, email
FROM dbo.users

In such cases, Collibra Data Lineage creates a dummy table, so that a complete lineage can be achieved. The dummy table has the name of the SQL file, and is appended with "-RES", as follows: "<filename>.SQL-RES".

To avoid the need for Collibra Data Lineage to create a dummy, you can add an INSERT or CREATE VIEW statement before your SELECT statement, for example:

CREATE VIEW user_info AS
SELECT username, email
FROM dbo.users

The resulting lineage is as follows: