An overview of running data checks

Checks are tools that allow you to validate your data based on specific conditions. Some of the checks allow you to search for conditions, such as polygon slivers or cutbacks, while other checks allow you to search for features that have spatial relationships with each other. For example, you may want to find buildings that have been mistakenly placed on water features.

Learn more about the checks available with Data Reviewer

Deciding which checks to run on your data

It is customary for people using Data Reviewer to have a product specification, such as Vector Map 1 or TopoMap, that the data must be validated against. For instance, a specification may require buildings to be at least 25 meters from a road. The Geometry on Geometry check can be used to find any buildings that are less than 25 meters from a feature in the road feature class.

There are also checks you can use to ensure your data does not contain any invalid features. This includes features that do not have the correct number of vertices for their geometry type or have a null extent.

Configuring the checks

There are some general steps to be followed when you are configuring checks. These steps include the following:

• Specifying a title for the check

  When you are creating a batch job and adding several instances of the same check, you can specify a title for the check. This can be used to describe the conditions you are looking for with the check. The check title is useful when you are using multiple instances of the same check to validate the same feature classes or tables with different validation parameters. For example, if you have several instances of the Geometry on Geometry check in a batch job, you can specify "Bridges that Overlap Roads" as the title for one and "Bridges that Overlap Railroads" for another.

• Defining the features or table records you want to run the check on

  This includes choosing the feature class or table as well as indicating whether or not you want the check to run on all the features or a subset that is selected based on a Structured Query Language (SQL) query. You can also indicate that you always want to run the check on the entire feature class or table.

• Configuring conditions specific to the check

  These conditions can range from defining a tolerance for distances that exist between features from different feature classes to specifying spatial relationships between features. For example, you can indicate that you want to find streams with a minimum of five vertices or bridges that overlap roads.

• Adding notes that populate the Reviewer table for each feature or table record that meets the check conditions

  Once the conditions are defined, you can add information that can be included with each record in the Reviewer table. The Notes text box allows you to create a specific note to be included with each record when it is written to the Reviewer table. Using the same example of finding streams with more than five vertices, the note could be "River has more than 5 vertices".

• Assigning a severity rating to records produced by the check

  You can indicate the importance of the results of a check by assigning a severity rating to them. For instance, if you want to indicate that buildings found on lakes are a high priority, you can assign the check a severity rating of 1.

Choosing an area of interest on which to run the check

After the check has been configured to search for the conditions you have specified, you need to choose the extent the check is going to be searching.

You can choose one of the following options:

• Selection Sets—The check is run on the features that are currently selected in the map.
  Note:

  If you are running a check where two feature classes are specified, and you want to use a selection set with one of them, you can check the Always Run on Full Database check box to indicate you want to use all the features in the other feature class.

• Current Extent—The check is run on the current map extent, which is controlled by the map scale.
• Definition Query—The check is run on the features that are displayed based on definition queries that have been created for the feature class.
• Full Database—The check is run on all the features in the feature class.

If you are validating data in a versioned geodatabase, you can also choose to run a check only on features that have been edited. When you check the Changed Features Only check box and run the check, features in the current version are compared to the parent version to identify what features have been changed. This option can be used in conjunction with any of the others above.

Viewing and managing check results

After an individual check is finished running, you can either browse through the results or write them directly to the Reviewer table.

The Browse Results option allows you to browse through each record in the map using the Browse Features dockable window. With this method, you can look at each record and decide whether or not to write it to the Reviewer table. If there are multiple parts to a feature, you can also look at its individual parts.

The Write to Reviewer Table option automatically writes all the records to the Reviewer table. With the example above, there would be two new records created in the Reviewer table.