7.7 Building the dictionary

A practical workflow is:

1. inventory every file and determine its grain;
2. import exact field names and technical types;
3. inspect observed values, ranges, formats, and missingness;
4. meet with data owners or subject experts to clarify business meaning;
5. document rules, units, relationships, and sensitivity;
6. add standardized and derived variables as they are created;
7. reconcile the dictionary with the actual analytical dataset; and
8. review the final dictionary as a client-facing deliverable.

Excel is often well suited to the dictionary because tables can be filtered, reviewed, and annotated. Use a formatted table, freeze headings, apply consistent validation lists where helpful, and avoid merged cells that interfere with sorting. The content, however, must remain consistent with the variables used in R, Power BI, Excel, or another analytical environment.