# DBLookup does not really use the metadata attribute?

**URL:** <https://forum.cloverdx.com/t/dblookup-does-not-really-use-the-metadata-attribute/376>\
**Category:** CloverDX Platform\
**Created:** [August 20, 2008, 12:00am UTC](https://forum.cloverdx.com/t/dblookup-does-not-really-use-the-metadata-attribute/376 "2008-08-20T00:00:00Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![achan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/7cd45c/32.png) [@achan](https://forum.cloverdx.com/u/achan)\
**Post date:** [August 20, 2008, 12:00am UTC](https://forum.cloverdx.com/t/dblookup-does-not-really-use-the-metadata-attribute/376/1 "2008-08-20T00:00:00Z")

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Hi,

looks like DBLookup does not really use the metadata attribute… i declared it in my graph as such:

…

 ..... 

and in my tranformation class’s init() method, i just have:

…  
LookupTable lookup = getLookupTable(mylookup);  
lookup.setLookupKey(“dummy”);

if (!lookup.isInitialized()) {  
lookup.init();  
}  
…

and i have no problem getting my lookup\_value from lookup\_types table…

so why is the metadata attribute mandatory (according to the documentation at [http://wiki.clovergui.net/doku.php?id=g … s#dblookup](http://wiki.clovergui.net/doku.php?id=graph%5Felements:lookups#dblookup))?

when will it be used and what is it for then?

thanks,  
al

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**Author:** ![avackova](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/65b543/32.png) [@avackova](https://forum.cloverdx.com/u/avackova)\
**Post date:** [August 21, 2008, 7:14am UTC](https://forum.cloverdx.com/t/dblookup-does-not-really-use-the-metadata-attribute/376/2 "2008-08-21T07:14:14Z")

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Hi,  
there are really not needed metadata for common usage of DBLookupTable - they are created from query result set during first query execution. But lack of this metadata would cause problems when using such table in writer component for partitioning or in CTL.