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[Erik van Ingen - FAO]

The observation value is a concept in the DSD: OBS_VALUE.

In the DSD the OBS_VALUE is used to express a certain measure. Where can be expressed in SDMX what the OBS_VALUE represents in a certain DSD?

And can, would it be expressed as well in the SDMX dataset or would that be strange practise?

[Agent96]

If I understand the question correctly (and I answer in the context of SDMX 2.1):

The primary measure has a fixed Id of OBS_VALUE, however it can reference any Concept for example PRODUCTION_QUANTITY. 

In a Dataset the identifier that the data is reported against will always be OBS_VALUE, as data is reported against DSD component
ids, not the Concept Ids which they reference. 

[Erik van Ingen - FAO]

The question was actually in the context of SDMX 2.0, I had forgotten to mention that. Since we will be moving to 2.1, your answer is still very useful, thank you! What would be the answer in a SDMX 2.0 context?

[Xavier Sosnovsky - ECB]

Will you opt for a time series-oriented representation of the dataset or for a cross-sectional one?

[Erik van Ingen - FAO]

timeseries

[Xavier Sosnovsky - ECB]

Let's take an example, just to make sure I understood what you mean. Let's assume the following fictional DSD about inflation:
- Dimension 1 = FREQUENCY
- Dimension 2 = REF_AREA
- Dimension 3 = ICP_ITEM (the inflation component, eg: food, transport, etc)
- Dimension 4 = ICP_SUFFIX (the series variation, e.g.: annual rate of change, index, etc).
- Dimension 5 = TIME_PERIOD

Let's assume the following values: M (monthy), DE (Germany), 010000 (Food and non-alcoholic beverages), INX (index), 2011-01

The (fictional) value 1.6 in this case would represent the measure of the phenomenon identified by the combination of the 5 dimension values mentioned previousely (i.e.: M.DE.010000.INX.2011-01 = 1.6).

Did I understand correctly that, what you want is to indicate that one of these dimensions (e.g. ICP_ITEM) tells what OBS_VALUE represents? Or is it something else?

[Erik van Ingen - FAO]

Thanks for asking! No that is not my case. The concept behind the OBS_VALUE is not represented by one of the dimensions. For instance we have a DSD with 3 dimensions, FishingCountry, FishingArea and the Species. The OBS_VALUE refers to the number of tonnes caught. So my question in this case is, where do I express in SDMX 2.0 that the OBS_VALUE refers to the catch?

[Stratos Nikoloutsos - Agilis]

(Although my answer comes a bit late)
I would suggest that for the SDMX 2.0 case, changing the Concept of the Primary Measure is what you were supposed to do.

So, to answer your initial question, it would not be a strange practice.

[Xavier Sosnovsky - ECB]

Apologies for my late reply.

In summary:

• All the dimensions have the same importance when fulfilling their purpose of identifying a piece of statistical data. It does not matter in your case, but I think it's nevertheless worth mentioning 
• If, for whatever reason, you need to identify the role played by a particular dimension, you could have a look at concept roles. Again, it does not really apply in your case, but it's good to mention for the sake of completeness.
• There is also the way mentioned by Stratos in his previous post.
• There are additional means of expressing this semantic, such as using the description or annotation fields of the artefacts you maintain, or use attributes, metadata reports, etc. As you see, you have many options to choose from 
  

[Erik van Ingen - FAO]

Xavier and Stratos,

These answers do definitely answer my question completely, thank you!

Erik