Master Data Gatekeeper

Master Data Gatekeeper

A legacy purchasing system exports vendor applications as one long text: records separated by |, and each record a list of KEY=VALUE fields separated by ;. Before the import job creates any vendors, the gatekeeper must answer one question: how many of these applications are actually importable? A record counts only when every mandatory field is present and passes its rule — everything else is quietly rejected.

Requirements

Create a codeunit named "Batch Validator" with one public procedure:

procedure CountValid(Batch: Text): Integer

CountValid returns the number of valid records in the batch. It never raises an error — an unreadable record is simply an invalid one. An empty or all-spaces Batch yields 0.

Reading the batch

1. Records are separated by |. A record that is empty or only spaces is skipped entirely — it is neither valid nor invalid.
2. Fields within a record are separated by ;. Field segments that are empty or only spaces are skipped.
3. Each field segment is cut at its first =: the part before it is the key, and everything after it is the value. Both are trimmed of leading and trailing spaces; inner spaces are preserved.
4. A field segment that has no =, or whose key is empty after trimming, makes the whole record invalid.
5. When the same key appears more than once in a record, the last occurrence is the one that gets validated.
6. Keys are case-sensitive. Keys other than the four mandatory ones below are ignored — extra fields never invalidate a record.

The rules

A record is valid exactly when all four mandatory fields are present and each value passes its rule:

• VAT — exactly 2 uppercase letters A–Z followed by exactly 9 digits, for example DE123456789. Lowercase letters, a wrong length, or any other character fail.
• POSTCODE — exactly 5 digits. Leading zeros are fine: 00123 passes; 123, 123456, and 12A45 fail.
• CREDIT — digits only, and its numeric value is between 500 and 20000 inclusive. A sign, a thousands separator, or decimals fail (-500, 1,500, 1500.00); leading zeros are fine (00500 is 500).
• CURRENCY — exactly EUR, USD, or GBP, case-sensitive (eur and EURO fail).

What the tests check

The tests call CountValid and check every rule above: a fully valid record; each mandatory field missing in turn; extra unknown fields being ignored; a catalogue of bad VAT, POSTCODE, and CURRENCY values; the CREDIT boundaries 499/500/20000/20001; leading zeros in POSTCODE and CREDIT; spaces around keys and values; blank records and blank field segments; last-occurrence-wins for duplicate keys; a record invalidated by a segment without = and by an empty key; and a randomized batch where only the generated valid records may be counted. One record carries a 30-digit CREDIT — it is merely out of range, and your code must reject it without crashing.

Learn More

• Text.Split method
• Text.Trim method
• Dictionary data type
• System.Evaluate method
• Text.CopyStr method