# Parent
<a name="API_Parent"></a>

Contains information about either a root or an organizational unit (OU) that can contain OUs or accounts in an organization.

## Contents
<a name="API_Parent_Contents"></a>

 ** Id **   <a name="organizations-Type-Parent-Id"></a>
The unique identifier (ID) of the parent entity.  
The [regex pattern](http://wikipedia.org/wiki/regex) for a parent ID string requires one of the following:  
+  **Root** - A string that begins with "r-" followed by from 4 to 32 lowercase letters or digits.
+  **Organizational unit (OU)** - A string that begins with "ou-" followed by from 4 to 32 lowercase letters or digits (the ID of the root that the OU is in). This string is followed by a second "-" dash and from 8 to 32 additional lowercase letters or digits.
Type: String  
Length Constraints: Maximum length of 100.  
Pattern: `^(r-[0-9a-z]{4,32})|(ou-[0-9a-z]{4,32}-[a-z0-9]{8,32})$`   
Required: No

 ** Type **   <a name="organizations-Type-Parent-Type"></a>
The type of the parent entity.  
Type: String  
Valid Values: `ROOT | ORGANIZATIONAL_UNIT`   
Required: No

## See Also
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For more information about using this API in one of the language-specific AWS SDKs, see the following:
+  [AWS SDK for C\$1\$1](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/goto/SdkForCpp/organizations-2016-11-28/Parent) 
+  [AWS SDK for Java V2](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/goto/SdkForJavaV2/organizations-2016-11-28/Parent) 
+  [AWS SDK for Ruby V3](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/goto/SdkForRubyV3/organizations-2016-11-28/Parent)