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Required Values Troubleshooting

Common problems when creating and running a Required Values check, their causes, and how to resolve them.

Validation Fails When Creating the Check

Clicking Validate returns an error instead of a success message.

Cause: The rule could not run against the selected data. The most common reasons are an invalid Filter Clause expression, a connection problem with the source, or a container that failed to load.

Resolution:

  1. Review the error message: it explains what needs attention.
  2. Check the Filter Clause for typos: it must be a valid SQL WHERE expression for the selected container.
  3. If the message says the container is marked as Unloadable, the container was skipped after repeated operation failures. Follow the steps in Unloadable Container Error.

A Value Is Reported as Missing but It Is in the Data

You can see the value in the column, yet the check reports it as absent.

Cause: On a text field the comparison is literal, so the entry on the list differs from the stored value in casing, or one of the two has a leading or trailing space. (On a numeric field this cannot happen: both sides are compared as numbers, so 1, 1.0 and 1.00 match.)

Resolution: Copy the value straight from the data into the list. If the data itself is inconsistently cased or padded, normalize it upstream, or add a Matches Pattern check to catch the formatting problem in its own right.

The Check Started Failing After a Filter Was Added

Values that used to pass are now reported as missing.

Cause: A filter makes the rule stricter: each required value must appear within the filtered rows, not merely somewhere in the container.

Resolution: Widen the filter, or shorten the list to the values that genuinely have to appear inside that slice.

Unexpected Values in the Column Are Not Reported

The column holds a category that is not on the list and nothing fires.

Cause: Required Values only checks that your values are present. It says nothing about values it did not ask for.

Resolution: Add an Expected Values check on the same field to constrain the column to a known set.

A Rare Value Is Reported as Missing on a Large Column

On a column with many distinct values, an entry that exists is reported as absent.

Cause: The rule examines up to 10,000 distinct values, keeping the most frequent ones. A rare value on a very high-cardinality column can fall outside that.

Resolution: Use the rule on categorical columns. For a lookup against a large set of values, Exists In is the right rule.

The Anomaly Lists No Source Records

Opening the anomaly shows the message but no rows.

Cause: The violation is the absence of a value, so there is no row to point at.

Resolution: Read the message to see which values never appeared, then look upstream at why they stopped arriving.

An Edited Check Keeps Behaving the Old Way

You changed the configuration but the anomaly list did not change.

Cause: Edits take effect on the next Scan. Saving the check does not re-evaluate the data, and anomalies raised under the previous configuration are not modified.

Resolution: Run a Scan on the container (or wait for the scheduled one). Old anomalies stay open until you triage them or a Full scan with Auto Resolve clears them. See What Happens to Existing Anomalies.

No Anomalies Although the Data Looks Wrong

A Scan ran, the data clearly breaks the rule, but nothing was reported.

Cause: One of these configurations is excluding the violations:

  • The check is in Draft status: Draft checks are not evaluated by Scans.
  • The Filter Clause excludes those rows before the evaluation runs.

Resolution: Confirm the check is Active and test the filter expression against the offending rows.