Core Concepts & Table Archetypes

LotusGen models relational data across four distinct table archetypes.

1. Record (record)

• Represents transactional, event, or entity data (e.g., orders, user_events, payments).
• Supports randomized distributions, reference lookups, regex pattern masks, and custom formulas.
• Configurable row limits ranging from hundreds to millions of records.

2. Aggregate (aggregate)

• Summary tables designed to roll up metric distributions or scenario models.
• Allows defining calculated aggregate fields based on upstream relational dependencies.

3. Reference (reference)

• Dimension tables acting as master catalog sources (e.g., products, categories, zip_codes).
• Edited directly via the built-in in-browser spreadsheet interface.
• Referenced by Record tables using VLOOKUP-style key-value column joins.

4. Collection (collection)

• Weighted categorical choice pools.
• Enables discrete probability distributions (e.g., Status: [("active", 0.7), ("pending", 0.2), ("banned", 0.1)]).
• Usable across any record field configured with the collection type.