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Invalid Character Check

The Invalid Character Check processor provides a quick and easy way to find values that contain odd characters.

Use

Use the Invalid Character Check to check for unusual characters. This is particularly useful when analyzing free text fields, which may have 'data cheats' in them, where data entry users have worked round mandatory fields by entering dummy characters such as #. The Invalid Character Check is also useful for finding typos.

If the invalid characters do not signify anything, they can simply be removed by adding a Denoise processor.

Configuration

Inputs

A single attribute to analyze for invalid characters

Options

Option	Type	Purpose	Default Value
Ignore case?	Yes/No	Allows you not to distinguish between characters in upper or lower case - for example to find any value containing either an upper case or lower case 'x'.	Yes
Disallowed characters Reference Data	Reference Data	A reference list of invalid characters. Allows a standard list of invalid characters to be used in a number of different checks, and allows control characters to be used.	*Noise Characters
Disallowed characters	Free text entry	Provides a quick way of adding small numbers of invalid characters to search for. Note that these act in addition to any characters in the Reference Data.	None

Outputs

Data attributes

None

Flags

Flag attribute	Purpose	Possible Values
CharValid	Indicates which data passes the Invalid Character Check; that is, does the value consist only of valid characters?	Y/N

Publication to Dashboard

An Invalid Character Check's results may be published to the Dashboard.

The following interpretation of results is used by default:

Result	Dashboard Interpretation
Valid	Pass
Invalid	Alert

Execution

Execution Mode	Supported
Batch	Yes
Real time Monitoring	Yes
Real time Response	Yes

Results Browsing

The Invalid Character Check produces a summary view of its results, showing the following statistics:

Statistic	Meaning
Valid records	The records that were categorized as Valid by the Invalid Character Check.
Invalid records	The records that were categorized as Invalid by the Invalid Character Check.

Output Filters

The following output filters are available from an Invalid Character Check:

Valid records
Invalid records

Example

In this example, a NAME attribute is checked for invalid characters such as ()#%^*$£"!

A number of records are found containing the # character.

Summary View

Drilldown on Invalid Records