What is a geodata attribute?

An attribute is a descriptive property of a geographic object, such as street name, year built, area, or status. Where geometry captures location and shape, attributes capture what the object means in content terms.

In vector data, attributes are usually stored in a table linked to features by ID. In the Dutch BAG, building ID, use type, and year built are attributes; in the BGT, object type and manager. Attributes enable analysis and filtering: all buildings older than 1980 within a buffer around a rail line.

Attributes are not geometry and not dataset-level metadata. Dataset metadata (source, date, license) describes the layer; attributes describe individual objects within that layer.