Setting the bindings for a data rule

When you set bindings for a data rule, you connect each local variable used in the rule logic to an implemented data resource, global variable, or literal value.

About this task

When you set the bindings for a data rule, you create a direct relationship between a logical element in your rule definition, such as "fname", and an actual column in one of your data source tables, such as the "first_name" column in your employee first name table. Instead of referring to a conceptual first name, for example, you are defining what table you want the first name data to come out of, and you are binding that element so that whenever you run the data rule that you create, the data rule always extracts the first name from the specific table that you created a binding for.

To set the bindings for a data rule, you must first open an existing data rule, or create a new data rule. You can create a new data rule by either highlighting an existing rule definition and clicking Generate a Data Rule, or by running a test on an existing rule definition, going to view output, and then clicking Save as a Data Rule. If you generate a data rule from the test results, then the bindings that you specified for the test are saved. If you generated a data rule from a rule definition, then you must bind physical data sources to the data rule by using the following steps. If you want to modify the bindings that you set when you generated a data rule from the test results page, you can use the following steps below after you open the data rule so that you can edit it.

Procedure

From the Data Quality workspace, open the data rule that you want to set the bindings for or click Generate a Data Rule or Rule Set. If you click Generate a Data Rule or Rule Set, then specify a name for the data rule.
From the Overview and Binding and Output tabs at the top of the screen, click the Bindings and Output tab.
Click Bindings in the Select View menu on the left side of the screen. Each logical variable that is a part of your data rule is displayed with the following elements:
Name

The name of the logical variable that is part of your data rule.

Rule Definition

The name of the rule definition that you are working with.

Data Type

The data type of the logical variable.

Design Binding

The implemented data resource, global variable, or literal that the local variable is bound to. The design binding is the default binding of the rule variable. The design binding name is determined by the object you add from the tabbed palettes to the source or reference data cells when creating the rule logic. If you hand-type the variable Col into the cell, there would be no design binding. Hand-typed rule variables will not have design bindings.

The design binding name is determined by the object you add from the tabbed palettes to the source or reference data cells when creating the rule logic. If you hand-type the variable Col into the cell, there would be no design binding. Hand-typed rule variables will not have design bindings

Implemented Binding

The column that is bound. You select an implemented binding from the list based on the design binding.
In the Rule Elements box, click the Binding box for the data rule element that you are working with. With the box you are working with still highlighted, move your cursor over to the Tabbed Palette in the right side of the screen. Select one of the following tabs: Implemented Data Resources, Global Logical Variables, or Literal.
Click Discover Bindings to identify potential matches based on the Physical Model definition.
After you select a tab that contains the data you want to work with, click the data that you want to bind to your data rule element. Then click Set as Binding. You can also double-click the data source that you want to bind your data rule element to, and automatically set your bindings.
When you finish setting the bindings, click Save or Save and Close in the lower right corner of the screen.

Example

For example, you have a rule definition for social security number validation named Validate_SSN. You want to bind the column Col to the Physical Column SSN. This is what you would have in the rule definition:

Table 1. Defining the Implemented Binding for this example
Name	Rule Logic	Data Type	Design Binding	Implemented Binding
Validate_SSN	SSN matches_format '999-99-9999'	String	SSN	From the Implemented Binding list, you find that the Physical Column has been implemented by a set of implemented data resources: Table1.SSN Table2.SocialSecurityNumber Table3.SSS_Code For this example, you select Table2.SocialSecurityNumber to validate social security numbers.

In this example, the Design Binding is SSN. The Implemented Bindings include a list of all those implementation models that implement the Design Binding SSN, which are Table1.SSN, Table2.SocialSecurityNumber, and Table3.SSS_CODE.

What to do next

Now you can add information to the Join Keys or the Output screens that you can access from the Select View menu on the left side of the screen.