FTB-C000085 / Data quality concept

Missing Value

A missing value indicates that the expected information is unavailable, unobserved, inapplicable, or withheld under a stated data contract.

Also known asmissing dataabsent value

Foundation 9 linked topicsPublished

Definitions

In plain terms

Missing is a meaning, not a number. The reason may be no event, closed market, provider gap, inapplicability, or a failed pipeline.

Technical

A dataset should distinguish missingness reason, structural absence, null encoding, session expectation, source provenance, and whether downstream estimation is permitted.

Scope

Missing must not be silently converted to zero or carried forward without policy.

Examples

  • A governed dataset records missing value explicitly and preserves the source context needed to interpret it.

Common misconceptions

  • Missing Value does not have one universal meaning or policy without its declared source, scope, and data contract.

Concept relationships

Narrower concepts

Related

Contrasts with

Required by

Where this concept is used

Tutorials planned

These catalogued topics use this concept, but their complete build has not shipped yet.

  • D01-F02-A01 Important
  • D01-F02-A02 Important
  • D01-F02-A03 Important
  • D01-F03-A01 Prerequisite
  • D01-F03-A02 Prerequisite
  • D01-F04-A01 Primary
  • D02-F03-A05 Important
  • D03-F06-A01 Important
  • D03-F06-A02 Important

Evidence and governance

  1. Fintech Builder Glossary Definition Contract The Fintech Builder · internal governed contract

    Supports: preferred label, short definition, technical definition

    Limits: Defines governed platform behavior rather than claiming these policies are universally prescribed by external McClellan methodology.

Reviewed by
Last reviewed
2026-07-26
Next review
2027-07-26
Record status
published
Written by

Fintech engineer building market-data and financial systems, and the author of every article, glossary record, and reference implementation on The Fintech Builder.