Validate an ERD Object

Checks an ERD object's structure, table and column references, relationship symbols, join-column types, and optionally the observed cardinalities.

Usage

validate_erd(
  erd_object,
  check_data = TRUE,
  strict = FALSE,
  allow_incomplete = FALSE
)

Arguments

erd_object

An object created by [create_erd()].

check_data

Logical. Check observed cardinalities if `TRUE`.

strict

Logical. Treat warnings as invalid if `TRUE`.

allow_incomplete

Logical. If `TRUE`, unfinished relationship specifications are reported as warnings rather than errors. This is useful while progressively constructing and rendering an ERD.

Value

An object of class `erd_validation` containing `valid`, `issues`, `n_errors`, `n_warnings`, and `strict`.

Details

Structural problems are errors. Observed-data problems are warnings because a sample may not fully represent the intended database constraints.

Examples

departments <- data.frame(
  dept_id = c(10, 20),
  department = c("Research", "Operations")
)

employees <- data.frame(
  employee_id = 1:3,
  dept_id = c(10, 10, 20),
  employee = c("Ana", "Ben", "Chen")
)

relationships <- list(
  departments = list(
    employees = list(
      dept_id = "dept_id",
      relationship = c("||", "0<")
    )
  )
)

erd <- create_erd(
  list(departments = departments, employees = employees),
  relationships
)

validate_erd(erd)
#> ERD validation: valid 
#> Errors: 0 | Warnings: 0