---
title: metadata
framework: homekit
role: symbol
role_heading: Instance Property
path: homekit/hmcharacteristic/metadata
---

# metadata

Metadata about the units and other properties of the characteristic.

## Declaration

```swift
var metadata: HMCharacteristicMetadata? { get }
```

## Discussion

Discussion You can typically infer a lot about a characteristic’s value from its characteristicType, like if the value is a string, a number, or in some other format; what the units are; and what range of values to expect. To obtain this information explicitly, inspect the characteristic’s metadata, represented by an instance of the HMCharacteristicMetadata class.

## See Also

### Managing characteristic presentation

- [HMCharacteristicMetadata](homekit/hmcharacteristicmetadata.md)