Summary field names inconsistent #8
Description
I'm trying to convince my current employer that combining summary records from PACs, presidential and other candidate committees (form F3X, F3P and F3) into one table called "summaries" is a good idea, and in the process, also trying to convince myself. One issue is that there are several fields which are inconsistently named between the three forms, which has long been an issue when combining these ad-hoc for analysis, but which would be more-so if we were to place them all in one table. I've started doing some analytical work to try to identify those inconsistencies, here are some of the ones I've found so far (with omitted col_a/col_b prefixes):
| F3 | F3P | F3X |
|---|---|---|
| individual_contributions_itemized | individuals_itemized | individuals_itemized |
| individual_contributions_unitemized | individuals_unitemized | individuals_unitemized |
| total_individual_contributions | individual_contribution_total | individual_contribution_total |
| political_party_contributions | political_party_committees_receipts | political_party_committees |
| pac_contributions | other_political_committees_pacs | other_political_committees_pacs |
| candidate_contributions | the_candidate | NA |
| transfers_to_authorized | transfers_to_other_authorized_committees | NA |
| total_refunds | total_contributions_refunds | total_refunds |
| refunds_to_party_committees | political_party_committees_refunds | refunds_to_party_committees |
| refunds_to_other_committees | other_political_committees | refunds_to_other_committees |
Aside from being duplicates, some of these, like other_political_committees, fail to specify what they measure.
If we agree these are worth renaming here, I can provide a PR once I've done a little more checking.