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Cambridge (CIE) IGCSE Your notes

Computer Science
Validation & Verification
Contents
Validation & Verification
Suitable Test Data
Trace Tables

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Validation & Verification

Your notes
Validation
What is validation?
Validation is an automated process where a computer checks if a user input is sensible and meets the
program's requirements.
There are six categories of validation which can be carried out on fields and data types, these are
Range check
Length check
Type check
Presence check
Format check
Check digit
There can be occasions where more than one type of validation will be used on a field
An example of this could be a password field which could have a length, presence and type check on it

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Your notes

Range check
Ensures the data entered as a number falls within a particular range

Pseudocode Ensures a percentage number is between 0-100 inclusive

OUTPUT “Enter a number between 0 and 100”

REPEAT
INPUT Number
IF Number < 0 OR Number > 100
THEN
OUTPUT “Number is not between 0 and 100, please try again”
ENDIF
UNTIL Number >= 0 AND Number <= 100

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Python Ensures a user's age has been entered and falls between the digits of 0-110 inclusive
Your notes
age = int(input("Enter your age"))
while age < 0 or age > 110:
age = int(input("Enter your age, ensure it is between 0-110"))

Length check
Checks the length of a string

Pseudocode Ensures a pin number can only contain 4 digits

OUTPUT “Please enter your 4 digit bank PIN number”

REPEAT
INPUT Pin
IF LENGTH(Pin) <> 4
THEN
OUTPUT “Your pin number must be four characters in length, please try again”
ENDIF
UNTIL LENGTH(Pin) ← 4

Python Ensures a password is 8 characters or more

password_length = len(password)
while password_length < 8:
password = input("Enter a password which is 8 or more characters")

Type check
Check the data type of a field

Pseudocode Ensures an age should be entered as an integer (whole number)

OUTPUT “Enter an integer number”

REPEAT
INPUT Number
IF Number <> DIV(Number, 1)
THEN
OUTPUT “Not a whole number, please try again”
ENDIF
UNTIL Number ← DIV(Number , 1)

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Python Ensures an age should be entered as an integer (whole number)

Your notes
age = input("Enter your age")
while [Link]() == False:
print("enter a number")
age = input("Enter your age as a number")

Presence check
Looks to see if any data has been entered in a field

Pseudocode Ensures username and password are both entered

OUTPUT “Enter your username”

REPEAT
INPUT Username
IF Username = “”
THEN
OUTPUT “No username entered, please try again”
ENDIF
UNTIL Username <> “”

Python Ensures when registering for a website the name field is not left blank

name = input("Enter your name")

while name == "":
name = input("You must enter your name here")

Format check
Ensures that the data has been entered in the correct format
Format checks are done using pattern matching and string handling

Pseudocode Ensures a six digit ID number is entered against the format "XX9999" where X is an
uppercase alphabetical letter and 9999 is a four digit number

INPUT IDNumber

IF LENGTH(IDNumber) <> 6
THEN
OUTPUT "ID number must be 6 characters long"
END IF

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ValidChars ← "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ"
Your notes
FirstChar ← SUBSTRING(IDNumber, 1, 1)
ValidChar ← False
Index ← 1

WHILE Index <= LENGTH(ValidChars) AND ValidChar = False DO

IF FirstChar = ValidChars[Index]
THEN
ValidChar ← True
ENDIF
Index ← Index + 1
ENDWHILE

IF ValidChar = False
THEN
OUTPUT "First character is not a valid uppercase alphabetical character"
ENDIF

SecondChar ← SUBSTRING(IDNumber, 2, 2)
ValidChar ← False
Index ← 1

WHILE Index <= LENGTH(ValidChars) AND ValidChar = False DO

IF SecondChar = ValidChars[Index]
THEN
ValidChar ← True
ENDIF
Index ← Index + 1
ENDWHILE

IF ValidChar = False
THEN
OUTPUT "Second character is not a valid uppercase alphabetical character"
ENDIF

Digits ← INT(SUBSTRING(IDNumber, 3, 6))

IF Digits < 0000 OR Digits > 9999

THEN
OUTPUT "Digits invalid. Enter four valid digits in the range 0000-9999"
ENDIF

Explanation

The first two characters are checked against a list of approved characters
The first character is compared one at a time to each valid character in the ValidChars array

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If it finds a match it stops looping and sets ValidChar to True

The second character is then compared one at a time to each valid character in the ValidChars array Your notes
If it finds a match then it also stops looping and sets ValidChar to True
Casting is used on the digits to turn the digit characters into numbers
Once the digits are considered a proper integer they can be checked to see if they are in the
appropriate range of 0-9999
If any of these checks fail then an appropriate message is output

Python Ensures an email contains a '@' and ' full stop (.) which follows the format
"email@[Link]"

email = input("Enter your email address")

while "@" not in email or "." not in email:
email = input("Please enter a valid email address")

Check digits
Check digits are numerical values that are the final digit of a larger code such as a barcode or an
International Standard Book Number (ISBN)
They are calculated by applying an algorithm to the code and are then attached to the overall code

Verification
What is verification?
Verification is the act of checking data is accurate when entered into a system
Mistakes such as creating a new account and entering a password incorrectly mean being locked out
of the account immediately
Verification methods include:
double entry checking
visual checks

Double entry checking

Double entry checking involves entering the data twice in separate input boxes and then comparing
the data to ensure they both match

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If they do not, an error message is shown

Pseudocode
Your notes
REPEAT
OUTPUT “Enter your password”
INPUT Password
OUTPUT “Please confirm your password”
INPUT ConfirmPassword
IF Password <> ConfirmPassword
THEN
OUTPUT “Passwords do not match, please try again”
ENDIF
UNTIL Password ← ConfirmPassword

Visual checks
Visual checks involve the user visually checking the data on the screen
A popup or message then asks if the data is correct before proceeding
If it isn’t the user then enters the data again

Pseudocode

REPEAT
OUTPUT “Enter your name”
INPUT Name
OUTPUT “Your name is: “, Name, “. Is this correct? (y/n)”
INPUT Answer
UNTIL Answer ← “y”

Worked Example
Describe the purpose of validation and verification checks during data entry. Include an example for
each.
[4]
Answers
Validation check
[1] for description:

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To test if the data entered is possible / reasonable / sensible

A range check tests that data entered fits within specified values
[1] for example: Your notes
Range / length / type / presence / format
Verification check
[1] for description:
To test if the data input is the same as the data that was intended to be input
A double entry check expects each item of data to be entered twice and compares both entries
to check they are the same
[1] for example:
Visual / double entry

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Suitable Test Data

Your notes
Suitable Test Data
What is suitable test data?
Suitable test data is specially chosen to test the functionality of a program or design
Developers or test-users would pick a selection of test data from the following categories
Normal
Abnormal
Extreme
Boundary
The results would be compared to the expected results to check if the algorithm/program works as
intended
Each category is explained within the context of a simple Python program below, comments have been
added to help explain the processes

Python

# Ask for user's name

name = input("What is your name? ")

# Ask for user's age

age = int(input("How old are you? "))

# Check if age is between 12 and 18

if age >= 12 and age <= 18:
print("Welcome, " + name + "! Your age is accepted.")
else:
print("Sorry, " + name + ". Your age is not accepted.")

Normal data
Normal test data is data that should be accepted in the program
An example would be a user entering their age as 16 into the age field of the program

Abnormal data

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Abnormal test data is data that is the wrong data type

An example would be a user entering their age as "F" into the age field of the program Your notes
Extreme data
Extreme test data is the maximum and minimum values of normal data that are accepted by the
system
An example would be a user entering their age as 18 or 12 into the age field of the program

Boundary data
Boundary test data is similar to extreme data except that the values on either side of the maximum and
minimum values are tested
The largest and smallest acceptable value is tested as well as the largest and smallest unacceptable
value
An example would be a user entering their age as 11 or 19 into the age field of the program

Selecting suitable test data

Type of Test Input Expected Output

Normal 14 Accepted

Normal 16 Accepted

Extreme 12 Accepted

Extreme 18 Accepted

Abnormal H Rejected

Abnormal @ Rejected

Boundary 11 Rejected

Boundary 19 Rejected

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Worked Example
Your notes
A programmer has written an algorithm to check that prices are less than $10.00
These values are used as test data: 10.00 9.99 ten
State why each value was chosen as test data.
[3]
Answers
10.00 is boundary or abnormal data and should be rejected as it is out of range [1]
9.99 is boundary, extreme and normal data and should be accepted as it is within the normal range [1]
Ten is abnormal data and should be rejected as it is the wrong value type [1]

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Trace Tables
Your notes
Trace Tables
What is a trace table?
A trace table is used to test algorithms and programs for logic errors that appear when an algorithm or
program executes
Trace tables can be used with flowcharts, pseudocode or program code
A trace table can be used to:
Discover the purpose of an algorithm by showing output data and intermediary steps
Record the state of the algorithm at each step or iteration
Each stage of the algorithm is executed step by step.
Inputs, outputs, variables and processes can be checked for the correct value when the stage is
completed

Trace table walkthrough

Below is a flowchart to determine the highest number of ten user-entered numbers
The algorithm prompts the user to enter the first number which automatically becomes the highest
number entered
The user is then prompted to enter nine more numbers.
If a new number is higher than an older number then it is replaced
Once all ten numbers are entered, the algorithm outputs which number was the highest
Example test data to be used is: 4, 3, 7, 1, 8, 3, 6, 9, 12, 10

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Your notes

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Trace table: Highest number

Your notes
Count Highest Number Output

1 Enter ten numbers

4 Enter your first number

2 3 Enter your next number

3 7 7

4 1

5 8 8

6 3

7 6

8 9 9

9 12 12

10 10 12 is your highest number

Worked Example
The flowchart represents an algorithm. The algorithm will terminate if –1 is entered.

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Your notes

Complete the trace table for the input data: 50, 75, 99, 28, 82, 150, –1, 672, 80
[4]

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Value Diff1 Diff2 Output

Your notes

Answer
[1] for each correct column

Value Diff1 Diff2 Output

50 50 0 Accept: Extreme

75 25 25 Accept: Normal

99 1 49 Accept: Normal

28 Reject: Abnormal

82 18 32 Accept: Normal

150 Reject: Abnormal

-1

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