---
title: Custom SQL Validation
description: Validates data quality by executing user-defined SQL queries.
group: Relevance
---

# Custom SQL Validation

The **Custom SQL Validation** rule executes custom SQL queries to validate specific data quality conditions.  
This rule is commonly used to:

- Implement complex validation logic beyond standard rules  
- Validate business-specific data relationships  
- Check cross-table data integrity  

**Example Usage**:  
- Ensure product prices are positive values across multiple tables  
- Validate that customer orders reference existing customer IDs  

**Important Requirement**:  
The custom SQL query **must return a result set** with a column named `is_valid`, where:
- `1` indicates a passing record  
- `0` indicates a failing record  

## Configuration Fields  

### Rule-Specific Configuration  

| Field Name | Description                                                  | Required | Data Type |
|:------------|:-------------------------------------------------------------|:-----------|:------------|
| **Query**      | SQL query returning an `is_valid` column (1=pass, 0=fail)     | Yes        | String        |

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### Success Criteria Configuration  

This section defines how the rule’s outcome is measured against expected thresholds.

| Field Name        | Description                                                 | Required   | Options / Format                                                     |
|:------------------|:------------------------------------------------------------|:-----------|:----------------------------------------------------------------------|
| **Operator**        | Comparison operation for result count                       | Yes        | `GreaterThan`, `LessThan`, `EqualTo`, `Between`                      |
| **Threshold Value** | Value for comparison (single value for most operators)      | Conditional| Number                                                               |
| **Threshold Min**   | Minimum value (for `Between` operator)                      | Conditional| Number                                                               |
| **Threshold Max**   | Maximum value (for `Between` operator)                      | Conditional| Number                                                               |
| **Is Percentage**   | Whether the threshold represents a percentage of total rows | No         | `true` / `false` (default: `false`)                                  |
| **Allow Nulls**     | Whether null values should be treated as valid              | No         | `true` / `false` (default: `false`)                                  |
| **Check For Match** | When `false`, validates for negation of the condition       | No         | `true` / `false` (default: `true`)                                   |

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## Sample Input Data  

**Table:** `product_sales_data`

| ID | Product Name | Category    | Price |
|:----|:--------------|:-------------|:-------|
| 1  | Refrigerator | Appliances  | 899   |
| 2  | Chair        | Furniture   | 120   |
| 3  | Smartwatch   | Appliances  | 250   |
| 4  | Laptop       | Electronics | 1200  |
| 5  | Smartphone   | Electronics | 800   |

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## Sample Configurations  

### Example 1: Category Validation  



| Configuration Field | Value                                                                 |
|:---------------------|:----------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Query               | `SELECT CASE WHEN Category IN ('Appliances','Electronics') THEN 1 ELSE 0 END AS is_valid FROM product_sales_data` |
| Operator            | Between                                                              |
| Threshold Min       | 3                                                                    |
| Threshold Max       | 5                                                                    |
| Is Percentage       | false                                                                |
| Allow Nulls         | false                                                                |

**Explanation**:  
Validates that 3–5 records belong to either 'Appliances' or 'Electronics' categories.

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## Sample Output  

| Column Name | Rule Name             | Success Count | Failure Count | Null Count | Within Threshold |
|:-------------|:-----------------------|:---------------|:---------------|:------------|:------------------|
| Category    | Custom SQL Validation  | 4             | 1             | 0          | Yes              |

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