Definition of attribute

In screen displays, an element of additional information stored with each character in the video buffer of a video adapter running in character mode. Such attributes control the background and foreground colors of the character, underlining, and blinking.

A characteristic of an object.

The name or structure of a field in a database entity. For example, the LASTNAME, FIRSTNAME, and PHONE are attributes of each record in a PhoneList entity. The size of a field and the type of information it contains are also attributes of a database record.

For files, information that indicates whether a file is read-only, hidden, ready for archiving (backing up), compressed, or encrypted, and whether the file contents should be indexed for fast file searching.

A single characteristic or additional piece of information (financial or nonfinancial) that exists in a database.

In markup languages such as SGML, HTML, and XML, a name-value pair within a tagged element that describes data or the formatting or properties of data associated with that element.

A descriptive declaration that can be applied to programming elements such as types, fields, methods, and properties.