A process in which files are first parsed (assigned to appropriate fields in a record) and then translated to a common format. For example, if an original record had the client’s name and address as “Bob Jones, VP Acme. Co., 15 S. Main St, Brooklyn” the standardized record might read “Bob Jones, Vice President, Acme Corporation, 15 South Main Street, Brooklyn, New York”. Data often lack consistency simply because there are a many of ways of saying the same thing. Standardizing the record ensures that when a query is run for a particular field, accurate results will be returned.
