# Meaning of the Active Field

Each component has an associated active field, which can take values of true (1) or false (0). The meaning of this flag is described by component type in the following table:

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**Behavior of Active and Inactive Components**

<table data-header-hidden data-full-width="true"><thead><tr><th width="117.28125"></th><th width="74.01171875"></th><th width="800"></th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td><strong>Component Type</strong></td><td><strong>Active value</strong></td><td><strong>Component behavior when the most recent row representing a component has the specified active value</strong></td></tr><tr><td>Concept</td><td>True</td><td><ul><li>The concept is intended for active use.</li><li>All active descriptions for which the conceptId refers to this concept are valid. Visibility of these active descriptions depends on information contained in applicable refset members (for example, whether the description is in a language dialect reference set that is currently enabled in the vendor's system).</li><li>All active relationships of which it is the sourceId or destinationId are applicable.</li></ul></td></tr><tr><td>Concept</td><td>False</td><td><ul><li>The concept is not intended for active use. However, it remains a valid concept for historical purposes as part of the SNOMED CT commitment to the principle of ' concept permanence'.</li><li>Valid descriptions of the concept remain active allowing it to be appropriately viewed in human-readable form.</li><li>An inactive concept cannot be the sourceId, destinationId or typeId of an active relationship.</li></ul></td></tr><tr><td>Description</td><td>True</td><td><ul><li>The description contains a term that is a valid description of the concept referred to by the conceptId.</li><li>An active description may refer to an inactive concept, in which case the term provides a valid description of that inactive concept. Text based searches should (by default) include only active descriptions that refer to active concepts.</li></ul></td></tr><tr><td>Description</td><td>False</td><td><ul><li>The description is not a valid and the associated term should no longer be regarded as being associated with the concept referred to by conceptId.</li></ul></td></tr><tr><td>Relationship</td><td>True</td><td><ul><li>The relationship represents a valid association of the type specified by the typeId, between two concepts referred to by the sourceId and destinationId ;</li><li>An inactive concept cannot be the sourceId, destinationId or typeId of an active relationship.</li></ul></td></tr><tr><td>Relationship</td><td>False</td><td><ul><li>The relationship is not valid. An inactive relationship should be ignored as it does not apply.</li><li>This does not necessarily mean that the association indicated by the relationship does not apply. The relationship may be inactive because it is redundant and inferable based on other active relationships.</li><li>An inactive relationship may refer to either active or inactive components.</li></ul></td></tr><tr><td>Refset member</td><td>True</td><td><ul><li>The refset member contains valid information applicable to the component referred to by the referencedComponentId .</li><li>The component referred to by the referencedComponentId may be active or inactive. An active refset member cannot make an inactive component active but may provide related information that continues to be relevant (e.g. the reason for inactivation).</li></ul></td></tr><tr><td>Refset member</td><td>False</td><td><ul><li>The refset member is not valid. An inactive refset member should be ignored. The information it contains is not applicable to the component referred to by referencedComponentId.</li></ul></td></tr></tbody></table>

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