Validation & Verification

Question	Answer
Validation	Validation checks are automatic checks made by a computer to ensure that any data entered into the computer is valid and sensible
Presence Check	Checks that data has been entered into a field and that it has not been left blank; for example, ensures that a last name is always entered into each record in a database of addresses.
Data Type Check	Checks that a value entered is of a particular data type; for example: ensures that a product price is in currency data type.
Length Check	Checks than an entered value such as mobile phone is no longer than a particular number of characters, 11 in this case.
Check Digits	These are normally digits on a ISBN Book code that are used as part of a calculation to ensure that the code entered is a valid code.
Range Check	Checks that an entered value falls within a particular range. For example, the price of a product could be in the range £0.50 to £185 for a toy shop.
Format Check	Checks that an entered value has a particular format; for example a post code typically consists of a set format.
Verification	The method used to check that the data entered into a computer is the same as it was on the original source of the data; in other words checking that the data is correct.
Two ways of verifying data	Visual checks and Double entry
Visual checks	Proof reading data to check that it exactly matches the source data
Double Entry	This is where data is entered twice from the source data and compared

Resource summary

	Created by Dean Whittle about 10 years ago