title: What's the difference between data Validation and Verification?
body: <p>My recollection from a past employer is that they distinguished between the two as follows:</p>
  
  <ul>
  <li>Validation is the process of checking that the data is appropriate in a very basic sense; for example that data in a date field can be converted to a date, or that characters in a number field can be converted to a number of the appropriate type;</li>
  <li>Verification is the process of checking the typed data against some other 'business' rules that you impose on your interface - for example that the Date Of Birth field indicates an applicant within a certain age range.</li>
  </ul>
  
  <p>These memories do not tie in with the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verification_and_validation" rel="nofollow">Wikipedia article</a> on the subject, nor a <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/ict/databases/3datavalidationrev1.shtml" rel="nofollow">BBC BiteSize Revision article</a>.</p>
  
  <p>So what is the consensus: Do people care what methods and processes are called when I am checking Xml inputs for example?</p>
  
  <p>What am I doing when I:</p>
  
  <ol>
  <li>Check that a date field contains characters that are convertible to a C# DateTime;</li>
  <li>Check that the DateTime is in an appropriate date range to be stored in SQL Server;</li>
  <li>Check that the Date Of Birth indicates a customer over 18 but under 65?</li>
  </ol>