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Tutorial: Create validation rules using reference data

This tutorial demonstrates how to use reference data to create data quality rules that validate catalog items against approved reference values.

Scenario overview

You maintain a reference table of valid values (such as territories, departments, or product categories) and want to validate your operational data against these approved values. This ensures data quality by flagging records that don’t match your standardized reference values.

What you’ll learn

  • How to create lookup rules from reference data.

  • How to apply validation rules to catalog items.

  • How to evaluate data quality using reference data.

  • How to update reference data and rebuild rules.

What you’ll need

For this tutorial, prepare:

  • Reference data table: A table containing your approved reference values (for example, valid territories, departments, or status codes).

  • Target catalog item: A catalog item with data that needs validation against your reference values.

  • Attribute mapping: Identify which attribute in your catalog item should be validated against which reference data.

Prerequisites

Before starting this tutorial, ensure you have:

  • Appropriate role on reference data tables:

    • Owner or Editor role to create and modify reference data tables.

    • Approver role to publish changes (if using approval workflows).

    • At minimum Viewer role to access table data.

  • Working knowledge of the Data quality and Transformation plans modules.

  • Sample data or catalog items to work with.

For information about roles and permissions, see User roles.

Step-by-step instructions

  1. Prepare the reference data

    1. Open your reference data table.

    2. Add, modify, or delete reference values as needed.

    3. Publish the changes to make them available for validation.

  2. Update the catalog item with reference data

    1. Create a transformation plan using the published reference table as input.

    2. Add a Database output targeting the original catalog item.

    3. Set write mode to Replace.

    4. Run the transformation to update the catalog item.

    5. Verify the updated data in the catalog item preview.

  3. Prepare the validation target

    1. Go to your target catalog item (the data you want to validate).

    2. Import the catalog item to the Reference data module if not already imported.

    3. Publish a sample set of records.

    4. Verify the published table appears in the catalog.

  4. Create the validation rule

    1. Navigate to Data Quality > DQ rules.

    2. Create a new rule.

    3. Define the rule logic:

      • Select is from or is not from reference data catalog item.

      • Choose your published reference table.

      • Select the appropriate attribute for comparison.

    4. Save and publish the rule.

  5. Apply the rule to your data

    1. Go to your target catalog item.

    2. Create a new Data Quality configuration.

    3. Apply the reference data validation rule to the relevant attribute.

    4. Configure the rule parameters as needed.

  6. Run initial data quality evaluation

    1. Execute the data quality evaluation.

    2. Review the DQ score and validation results.

    3. Identify records that don’t match reference values.

  7. Test rule updates

    1. Return to your reference data table.

    2. Publish additional reference values.

    3. Rebuild the validation rule to include new reference values.

    4. Re-run the data quality evaluation.

    5. Compare the updated DQ scores.

Expected outcome

You now have an automated validation process that ensures your data matches approved reference values. The system will flag any records with invalid codes, helping maintain data quality standards.

Next steps

After completing this tutorial:

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