Patrick Leyseele explains Data Integrity: Why Is It Important?

Patrick Leyseele • What is Data Integrity?
Data integrity means the accuracy, safety, security, completeness, and consistency of data and information. There are certain processes, rules, and standards used in order to maintain data.
Data integrity aims to make the stored information secure, reliable, and 100% accurate without worrying about accessibility, how information is stored, or how long it is stored. No matter the outside threats, your data will remain safe.

• What Are the Types of Data Integrity? And What is the Importance of Each Type?
Physical and logical integrity are the two main types of data integrity. They include all the processes and methods used in order to obtain data integrity.

1. Physical Integrity:
Physical integrity means protecting all your data and keeping it accurate while storing and retrieving it. Certain problems such as disasters, power problems, hacking, human errors, and storage problems can compromise physical integrity and make it difficult to process data.

2. Logical Integrity:
Logical integrity protects data in a way different from physical integrity. There are four types of logical integrity.

• Entity Integrity:
It depends on creating primary keys in order to identify certain amounts or pieces of data. It ensures that the data is not repeated.

• Referential Integrity:
It consists of some processes that ensure that the storage and use of your data are appropriate. The processes can include certain constraints preventing the duplication of data and ensuring that the data is 100% accurate.

• Domain Integrity:
It refers to a collection of processes ensuring that each piece of data are accurate. Domain refers to certain processes and values that can be contained in a column.

• User-Defined Integrity:
It includes all the rules made in order to fit the users’ needs. In certain cases, the previous types of data integrity cannot ensure the complete integrity of data. That is why certain business rules and constraints must be applied. Patrick Leyseele is an experienced person in the subject.