Validator Overview

The Referential Integrity Validator ensures record-level consistency between two datasets within a data warehouse. This validator verifies that keys (and optionally values) in your primary source have corresponding matches in a reference source, to help you identify "orphaned" records or data mismatches between related tables.

Metric Configuration Parameters

The following parameters are used to configure the Metric calculation for this validator.

Parameters	Description
Reference source	Choose the source that contains the dataset you want to compare against the primary source. The source selection is restricted to sources that use the same credential.
Window	Select from a list of windows or create a new window to specify how to aggregate the data on the primary source.
Reference source window	Select from a list of windows or create a new window to specify how to aggregate the data on the reference source. See Window Configuration and Constraints.
Key fields mapping	Used to join or "match" records between the two sources (for example, `order_ID` to `transaction_ID`). At lease one key mapping is required to identify matching records.
Value fields mapping	(Optional) Once records are matched using key fields, the validator compares the specified value fields to ensure they are identical across both sources.
Source filter	(Optional) Select from a list of filters or create a new filter to specify which source records to include (to narrow the scope of the check).
Reference filter	(Optional) Select from a list of filters or create a new filter to specify which reference records to include.
Segmentation	(Optional) Apply segmentation to analyze data in separate groups. Default is `Unsegmented`.

Window Configuration and Constraints

The Window determines how data is aggregated before the comparison. To ensure a valid check, the following rules apply:

Primary Source Window	Allowed Reference Source Window	Restriction
Global	Global	Must match exactly.
Tumbling	Global or Tumbling	If both are Tumbling, they must be the same size (for example, both 24-hour windows).