# Documenting Column Description

**URL:** <https://discourse.greatexpectations.io/t/documenting-column-description/341>\
**Category:** Archive\
**Created:** [August 24, 2020, 3:43pm UTC](https://discourse.greatexpectations.io/t/documenting-column-description/341 "2020-08-24T15:43:34Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![routdeepak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8491ac/32.png) [@routdeepak](https://discourse.greatexpectations.io/u/routdeepak)\
**Post date:** [August 24, 2020, 3:43pm UTC](https://discourse.greatexpectations.io/t/documenting-column-description/341/1 "2020-08-24T15:43:34Z")

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Is there a way to display the column description against each column? Inside the “meta” \> “column” the description is not displaying anything in data docs.

For e.g.

```auto
"last_visited": {
        "description": "Last visited date and timestamp."
      },

```

I understand the notes inside meta for each expectation can be rendered in the UI. But how to do it for column level (mostly as a data catalogue or data dictionary)

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![eugene.mandel](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex031/user_avatar/discourse.greatexpectations.io/eugene.mandel/32/22_2.png) [@eugene.mandel](https://discourse.greatexpectations.io/u/eugene.mandel)\
**Post date:** [August 24, 2020, 6:36pm UTC](https://discourse.greatexpectations.io/t/documenting-column-description/341/2 "2020-08-24T18:36:10Z")

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This how-to guide shows how to add comments to any expectations and have them rendered in Data Docs: [https://docs.greatexpectations.io/en/latest/guides/how\_to\_guides/configuring\_data\_docs/how\_to\_add\_comments\_to\_expectations\_and\_display\_them\_in\_data\_docs.html](https://docs.greatexpectations.io/en/latest/guides/how_to_guides/configuring_data_docs/how_to_add_comments_to_expectations_and_display_them_in_data_docs.html)

You can use this feature to add the description of a column. As a convention, we usually attach column description to the `expect_column_to_exist` expectation:

> batch.expect\_column\_to\_exist(  
> “brand”,  
> meta={  
> “notes”: {  
> “format”: “markdown”,  
> “content”: [  
> “Example notes about this column. **Markdown** `Supported`.”,  
> “Second example of a note about this column **with** _Markdown_”,  
> ]  
> }  
> }  
> )

Please note that the comments are rendered only on the Expectation Suite pages, but not on the Validation Results ones. If this is important to you, please add +1 to this GitHub issue: [Data Docs: add comments/notes to the validation results pages · Issue #1840 · great-expectations/great\_expectations · GitHub](https://github.com/great-expectations/great_expectations/issues/1840)

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**Author:** ![hansen.peterd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/48db29/32.png) [@hansen.peterd](https://discourse.greatexpectations.io/u/hansen.peterd)\
**Post date:** [March 9, 2021, 10:22pm UTC](https://discourse.greatexpectations.io/t/documenting-column-description/341/3 "2021-03-09T22:22:45Z")

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Yes, but how do you render the column level descriptions?

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**Author:** ![keshjo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/7ab992/32.png) [@keshjo](https://discourse.greatexpectations.io/u/keshjo)\
**Post date:** [July 15, 2021, 2:55am UTC](https://discourse.greatexpectations.io/t/documenting-column-description/341/4 "2021-07-15T02:55:31Z")

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+1 to following up on this thread. Is there a way to render the column descriptions, independent of packaging the description in an expectation? The reply to this thread by @eugene.mandel mentions documenting the column in an expect\_column\_to\_exist expectation by convention. Does that mean the description from “meta” \> “column” isn’t intended to be rendered in the documentation? Thanks!