How Data validation benefits your business?
The amount of data that we generate each day is simply mind-boggling. According to the research, the people generate roguhly 2.5 quintillion bytes of data. Moreover, 90% of the world’s data is being produced in the last two years alone. Thanks to the invention of smartphones, tablets, and other internet devices, data consumption and creation are constantly growing.
According to IDC and Seagate predict, the global data sphere is expected to reach 163 zettabytes by 2025. The majority of the data is unstructured which requires pre-processing before it is used in Data Analytics. This is where data validation comes in to picture and also the crucial step in data pre-processing.
In this article, we will discuss the importance, types, and benefits of data validation.
Importance of Data validation
Data validation provides accuracy and clarity of data to remove any issues in the project workflow. The risk can occur in the decision-making when you don’t validate the data with the appropriate process.
It is no secret that how data can be valuable to any organization’s success. The companies can stand out from competitors with the proper insights. Data must be accurate and complete to gather useful insights. Otherwise, it affects the company’s time and money.
Types of Data validation
There are many types of Data validation. Most data validation procedures will undergo some of these checks to ensure that the data is more accurate before it is analyzed. The following are some of the validation types to maintain integrity and clarity in the data.
· Data type check
A data type check confirms the format of the data type entered is correct. For example, if a field accepts only numeric data, in this case, any data other than numbers should be rejected by the system.
· Code check
A code check matches the entered values against the list of existing values or follows certain rules. For example, it is easy to verify the valid postal codes by checking against the list of valid codes.
· Range check
A range check will verify whether the data falls within the range. For example, a latitude value should lie between the range of -90 and 90, while a longitude value lies between -180 and 180. Any values out of this range are rejected as invalid.
· Format check
Many data types follow a certain pre-defined format. A common example is data columns that are stored in a fixed format like “YYYY-MM-DD” or “DD-MM-YYYY”. The format check ensures that the given data is entered with the date format to maintain consistency and integrity.
· Consistency check
A consistency check confirms the input is logically consistent. For example, checking the delivery date is after the shipping date for a parcel.
· Uniqueness check
Some data like IDs and Email addresses are inherently unique. A database should have unique entries in these fields. This check ensures that these field values are not duplicated in a database.
Benefits of Data validation
Some of the compelling benefits of data validation are as follows
· It removes the duplicates from the datasets, thus it becomes perfect to use and compatible with other processes.
· It is cost-effective and saves enormous time and money after the complete validation.
· With improved information collection, data validation can directly impact your business growth.
Conclusion
Data validation is an important step in data and analytic workflow to filter quality data and improve the overall efficiency of the process. It not only produces reliable and accurate data but also enables it to handle more easily. There are multiple software available that simplifies the validation process and can be designed with specific business requirements. Companies can explore these applications to enhance their business growth and reduce the bottom line.
