New Validation and Transformation Language (VTL) - European Statistical System (ESS)

A technical task-force mandated by the SDMX Secretariat has submitted for public review a new Validation and Transformation Language (VTL) allowing the definition and exchange of rules for data validation. The public review period of the technical specification extends until 8th November 2014, in order to allow time for the consolidation of a final version at the end of 2014.

 
The intention is to provide a language which is usable by statisticians to express logical validation rules and transformations on data, whether described as a dimensional table or as unit-record data. VALS (the validation language developed by the ESS.VIP Validation) contributed to the development of VTL, and the VTL draft syntax is already largely based on VALS. The final aim is to agree on one international validation language which is also used in the ESS.

 
Although a work-product of SDMX, the VTL language will be usable with other standards as well. The present draft for public review also provides (in its part 1) a formal description of data validation at business level against which information models can be mapped.

 
VTL – part 1: Validation and Transformation Language (General Description)
VTL – part 2: Validation and Transformation Language (Library of Operators)
 

For further information:

• On SDMX
• On data validation services

Contact: Marco Pellegrino