Data integrity characteristic: reasonableness

Name:

Date:

Class:

Quick Questions

Shade in the A or B circle for each question.

1. A student record shows an age of 250 years. Which integrity characteristic does this breach?

A Timeliness

B Reasonableness

2. Which statement describes reasonable data?

A Its value is sensible and believable in its context

B It was collected from a source that nobody can question

3. A shop records a customer buying -5 pencils. What is the problem?

A An impossible value that fails a reasonableness check

B A value that is simply out of date

4. A reasonableness check on a 'Year Level' field accepts only 7 to 12. What does it do with a value of 27?

A Flags it as unreasonable

B Accepts it because it is a whole number

5. A house price dataset has one home listed at $2 instead of $2,000,000. How should an analyst treat this outlier?

A Leave it, because every outlier must be correct

B Flag it and investigate, because it looks wrong

Match the Pairs

Draw a line connecting each item on the left to its match on the right.

Left column		Right column
1IF age < 0 OR age > 120 THEN flag		AA check that rejects a test mark that is higher than the maximum possible score
2IF mark > 100 THEN reject		BIF temp >= -10 AND temp <= 50 THEN accept
3An outlier that looks wrong should be flagged for review, not silently accepted		CThe check only tests the lower limit, so an impossible age of 250 is accepted. It needs an upper limit such as age <= 120.
4A reasonableness check tests a value against a sensible range for its context		DIF price > 10 * average_price THEN review
5IF age >= 0 THEN accept (age = 250)		ENo reasonableness check was applied, so an impossible value was accepted as correct. The value should have been flagged and corrected.
6Weight of a student = 5000 kg, record accepted		FA reasonableness check that flags impossible ages that fall outside a believable range

Definitions

reasonableness

Fill in the Blanks

Complete each line of code by filling in the missing parts.

if age _ 120: print("Unreasonable age")

if ___ < 0: flag = True

SELECT * FROM students WHERE yearLevel ___________ 7 AND 12;

if age < 0 __ age > 120: print("Check this value")

if mark _ 100: print("Impossible mark")

Spot the Error

Shade in the letter of the line that contains an error.

Question 1

A age = 250

B IF age < 0 AND age > 120 THEN

C flag 'unreasonable age'

D END IF

Question 2

A FOR each mark IN marks

B // marks must be 0 to 100

C IF mark<0 OR mark>1000 THEN

D flag mark

E END IF

F END FOR

Question 3

A def is_reasonable(age):

B if age < 0:

C return False

D return age >= 120

Question 4

A max_age = 1200

B age = 250

C if age > max_age:

D print('Check this age')

Question 5

A price = -15

B if price >= 0:

C print('Impossible price')

D else:

E print('Price is OK')

Answer Key

Data integrity characteristic: reasonableness

Section A: Quick Questions

B — Reasonableness

A — Its value is sensible and believable in its context

A — An impossible value that fails a reasonableness check

A — Flags it as unreasonable

B — Flag it and investigate, because it looks wrong

Section B: Match the Pairs

IF age < 0 OR age > 120 THEN flag → A reasonableness check that flags impossible ages that fall outside a believable range

IF mark > 100 THEN reject → A check that rejects a test mark that is higher than the maximum possible score

An outlier that looks wrong should be flagged for review, not silently accepted → IF price > 10 * average_price THEN review

A reasonableness check tests a value against a sensible range for its context → IF temp >= -10 AND temp <= 50 THEN accept

IF age >= 0 THEN accept (age = 250) → The check only tests the lower limit, so an impossible age of 250 is accepted. It needs an upper limit such as age <= 120.

Weight of a student = 5000 kg, record accepted → No reasonableness check was applied, so an impossible value was accepted as correct. The value should have been flagged and corrected.

Section C: Definitions

reasonableness — Data is reasonable when its value is sensible and believable in its context, so impossible values or odd outliers (like an age of 250) are flagged by reasonableness checks.

Section D: Fill in the Blanks

if age > 120:
    print("Unreasonable age")

if age < 0:
    flag = True

SELECT * FROM students
WHERE yearLevel NOT BETWEEN 7 AND 12;

if age < 0 or age > 120:
    print("Check this value")

if mark > 100:
    print("Impossible mark")

Section E: Spot the Error

B — No age can be both below 0 and above 120, so AND means nothing is ever flagged. A reasonableness check should use OR: IF age < 0 OR age > 120 THEN.

C — The upper limit is wrong. A mark above 100 is impossible, so the check must use 100 as its limit. A mark of 500 would pass a limit of 1000. It should be mark>100.

D — The comparison is the wrong way round. Reasonable ages are 120 or less, so the function should return age <= 120. As written, an age of 250 would be accepted as reasonable.

A — The maximum is set far too high to be believable. An age of 250 would not be flagged. The limit should be a sensible value such as 120.

B — The condition is reversed. It flags positive prices as impossible. The impossible values are zero or negative, so the check should be if price <= 0:.