8.2 Validation Rules

Validation rules can be created manually or automatically generated.

Creating validation rules manually

To manually create a validation rule, click the Add button in the Rules panel or right-click a selection in the editor and select Rules > Add Rule...   This will open the Rule Editor:

  • Name - All rules must be provided with a unique name.
  • Rule type - There are two types of rules; validations rules and content suppression rules.

Rule expression

The rule expression editor works the same way as the Calculation expression editor.

Validation rules can be either logical, resolving to either a True or False, or numeric, resolving to a number.

Logical expressions

Logical expressions resolve to either a True or False, such as Turnover - Cost of Sales = Gross profit. 

Numeric expressions

Numeric expressions can resolve to any numeric value. For validation purposes, a 0 is considered a pass and any other number is considered a fail.  Unlike a logical expression which will result in only a true or a fail, using a numeric expression such as Turnover - Cost of Sales - Gross profit could result in not only a true or a false, but also a value that the expression is out. The feedback from using numeric expressions will be more useful in resolving issues than logical expressions.

Automatically Generating Rules

Multiple rules relating to data objects in tables can be automatically generated at once.  To do so, first select the data objects, then right-click and select Rules -> Auto Generate Validation Rules…


In this example, you can generate 11 rules at once – 4 which cast the columns, and 7 which cast the rows:

To do so, check the Per row and Per column options.

Note:  The above validation rules would not be unnecessary if the totals were being calculated using Report Authority’s Calculation adaptor.

Editing a Validation Rules

Validation rules can be edited by first selecting them in the Rules panel and clicking Edit (or by right-clicking and selecting edit).

Deleted data objects

Validation rules continue to work even if a data object used in the rule has been deleted.  The value of a deleted data object shall be deemed to be 0.

A deleted data object can recognised by its name as this example:

Evaluating Validations Rules

Validation rules are evaluated along with XBRL validation rules (if the document is XBRL Tagged) in a single unified process via the Validations panel.

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