# What is the difference between Identity Attribute and Display Attribute **URL:** \ **Category:** IIQ Discussion and Questions\ **Tags:** correlation, rules, identityiq, apis, connectors, provisioning\ **Created:** [January 16, 2026, 8:53am UTC](https://developer.sailpoint.com/discuss/t/what-is-the-difference-between-identity-attribute-and-display-attribute/193481 "2026-01-16T08:53:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![rishavghoshacc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/dc4da7/32.png) [@rishavghoshacc](https://developer.sailpoint.com/discuss/u/rishavghoshacc)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2026, 8:53am UTC](https://developer.sailpoint.com/discuss/t/what-is-the-difference-between-identity-attribute-and-display-attribute/193481/1 "2026-01-16T08:53:01Z")
Hi all, What is the difference between Identity Attribute and Display Attribute in the schema. What are the significance of these two when it comes correlation and how an account looks like in the UI? Thanks in advance ---
**Author:** ![amulpuru](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/sailpoint/discuss/user_avatar/developer.sailpoint.com/amulpuru/32/39238_2.png) [@amulpuru](https://developer.sailpoint.com/discuss/u/amulpuru)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2026, 9:18am UTC](https://developer.sailpoint.com/discuss/t/what-is-the-difference-between-identity-attribute-and-display-attribute/193481/2 "2026-01-16T09:18:04Z")
Hi @rishavghoshacc , Welcome to SailPoint developer community This detailed document on the SailPoint developer community will help you to get the difference you looking for > **[Difference between identity attribute and display attribute](https://community.sailpoint.com/t5/IdentityIQ-Wiki/Difference-between-identity-attribute-and-display-attribute/ta-p/145877)** > >   Written by: Bhanu Prakash K () Many people are confused and in fact, I was also bit confused regarding the Identity Attribute and Display Attribute in application configuration (Schema). I just want to give some clarity. Please let me know if... Thanks in advance Avinash Mulpuru ---
**Author:** ![pattabhi](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/sailpoint/discuss/user_avatar/developer.sailpoint.com/pattabhi/32/25700_2.png) [@pattabhi](https://developer.sailpoint.com/discuss/u/pattabhi)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2026, 9:19am UTC](https://developer.sailpoint.com/discuss/t/what-is-the-difference-between-identity-attribute-and-display-attribute/193481/3 "2026-01-16T09:19:29Z")
Hi @rishavghoshacc This is a basic question. **Identity Attribute** is unique key or id. for example: `distinguishedName` (AD), `Employee_ID/Employee_Number` (HR), `UUID` (Database), Primary\_Key\_ID **Display Attribute** is user friendly name what is displayed on the UI, Does not strictly need to be unique. for exmaple: `displayName, Full_Name , Username, sAMAccountName, email` ---
**Author:** ![amulpuru](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/sailpoint/discuss/user_avatar/developer.sailpoint.com/amulpuru/32/39238_2.png) [@amulpuru](https://developer.sailpoint.com/discuss/u/amulpuru)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2026, 9:22am UTC](https://developer.sailpoint.com/discuss/t/what-is-the-difference-between-identity-attribute-and-display-attribute/193481/4 "2026-01-16T09:22:31Z")
Attaching few more resources [Difference between Identity Attribute and Display Attribute.pdf](https://developer.sailpoint.com/discuss/uploads/short-url/pbqHmPvINPHq71o2ZguthhkwP5a.pdf) (793.0 KB) > [@What is the difference between Identity Attribute and Dispaly Attribute and how does correlation work?](https://developer.sailpoint.com/discuss/t/what-is-the-difference-between-identity-attribute-and-dispaly-attribute-and-how-does-correlation-work/73769): > > Hi Everyone, Many of the people were confused, and even I was a bit confused regarding the Identity Attribute and Display Attribute in application configuration (Schema). I just want to give some clarity. Please let me know if I am wrong. Let’s get started. Let’s talk about Identity Attribute first, The Identity Attribute is used to take or pick up the unique data from the application that is to be onboarding to get the unique users with the link to the application along with the usage of nat… ---
**Author:** ![bhanuprakashkuruva](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/sailpoint/discuss/user_avatar/developer.sailpoint.com/bhanuprakashkuruva/32/22154_2.png) [@bhanuprakashkuruva](https://developer.sailpoint.com/discuss/u/bhanuprakashkuruva)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2026, 9:44am UTC](https://developer.sailpoint.com/discuss/t/what-is-the-difference-between-identity-attribute-and-display-attribute/193481/5 "2026-01-16T09:44:26Z")
@rishavghoshacc This is nice documentation (shared by Avinash the developer portal link) that I created. Please go through it step by step and run those test cases you will get more clear idea about. Feel free to comment on it if you need any help or more understand on it. ---
**Author:** ![kumarSinghM](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecb155/32.png) [@kumarSinghM](https://developer.sailpoint.com/discuss/u/kumarSinghM)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2026, 7:51am UTC](https://developer.sailpoint.com/discuss/t/what-is-the-difference-between-identity-attribute-and-display-attribute/193481/6 "2026-01-17T07:51:49Z")
Display Attribute in IIQ is utilized mainly for displaying purpose in IIQ Identity Warehouse page whereas Identity attribute is how the data is stored in the xml for an identity object. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/sailpoint/original/2X/f/f2136700ed5e3703e0b85e02f6be799dacca7735.png) [@system](https://developer.sailpoint.com/discuss/u/system)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2026, 7:51am UTC](https://developer.sailpoint.com/discuss/t/what-is-the-difference-between-identity-attribute-and-display-attribute/193481/7 "2026-03-18T07:51:56Z")
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