How to Create Validation Rules in Salesforce?

The validation rule in Salesforce is the specific rule that is responsible for the verification of the data which is entered by the users for meeting the standardized requirements.

What is a validation rule?

The validation rule is applicable for meeting the specific criteria before saving the records. Salesforce validation rule comprises a formula or an expression that helps in the evaluation of the data about more than one field and ultimately returns true or false according to the condition. The Salesforce validation rule helps determine the value true only when there is a confirmation that the data entered by the end-user comprise. Some error messages are being included in the validation rules for displaying to the clients and the users whenever they are entering the invalid values.

Validation rules in Salesforce talk about the contribution for maintaining the quality data efficiently and ensuring that all the fields inside a particular format never exceed a definite percentage. Validation rules can be applied for ensuring that all the phone numbers and the associated fields comprise a definite format for the successive discounts that apply to specific brands and products are never crossing the limitations of a definite benchmark being said by the company.

Define the validation rules in Salesforce

The validation rules Salesforce can be created concerning, the specified objects campaign members fields or even in the cases of milestones where we need to follow many steps for the creation of the rule that gets fired whenever the end-user tries saving the account associated with the wrong length of the account number.

Creation of the validation rule in Salesforce

The very first step for the creation of the validation rule is to go from the setup and move ahead towards the object manager. Now by clicking the account, we need to move ahead to the left sidebar where we can see a separate menu for the validation rules. After clicking the validation rules, you have to click the new button and enter the specific properties associated with the validation rules. This can be the error condition formula rule name and the error messages.

The most important thing that we need to keep in mind is that whenever er are mentioning the name of the rule we need to be particular about the name and type of characters that we are using. It is allowed to use underscore signs and the numbers in between the rule name.

There is a specific Syntax for mentioning the error condition formula.

For example – LEN( AccountNumber) != 8.

Also, there is another thing that we should emphasize while mentioning the error message that the number of accounts should be exactly 8 characters long, and for checking the formula for errors we need to click on check Syntax. The next step for the creation of the validation rule is – click the save button to finish the process.

Examples of associated with validation rules in Salesforce

As soon as the process for the creation of the validation rules gets completed now, we need to move ahead towards verifying some of the instances related to the validation rules which can be tried out by the users themselves. There is a specific function for mention in the account number that should be numeric and the name of the function is and.

The AND function is quite important while specifying the error messages in Association with validation rules that return a value of true only in those cases where all the values specified in the formula are considered true or otherwise it returns false if more than one value is considered false or invalid. There is another function known as the ISBLANK function. This function is used for determining whether the expression contains a specific value and also helps to determine the expression which should be a perfect number.

The NOT function is also associated with the validation rule for determining if the inverse of an expression returns the true values. We can consider an example for the determination of the validation rule in case the account number neither contains a number nor it is blank. In case the function returns the true value, it indicates that the data being entered by the end-user comprises the error message that occurs.

In case the end-user is entering the non-numeric value associated with the account number there is a recurrence of true response on behalf of the validation rule along with the production of the error message. Suppose we are trying to validate the account number whether it is alphanumeric or in case if it is not blank then according to the formula being entered, we will be receiving the error message in case the account number is not numeric or contains a blank. Also, keep in mind that the location of the error would be the account number to which we are associated with the error message.

Another example associated with mentioning the date that should lie in the current year

In this case, there is a specific function being used known as the YEAR function and returns a 4-digit year to the given date about the current year. Function such as the TODAY function helps in returning the current date of the current year and with the usage of the not equal operator, we can easily determine whether the value is equal to the corresponding value.

This TODAY function help in testing if two values are not equal to each other then there can be the case that either the first value is less than the second value or vice versa. There is another example associated with the determination of the date in the current year with the help of the validation rule. It explains that by mentioning the validation rule you can make the judgment whether the year of a given date is exactly equal to the year of the date of today.

In this case, if you are getting “True” Value which indicates that the user has entered the data which contains some invalid values inside it.

If the end-user is entering a particular date that does not belong to the current year the validation rule is responsible for returning a response of true and finally produces an error message in the cases of the invalid responses by the users. If the description under the field projects that the value is for validating that the custom data field contains a date belonging to the current year and we need to enter the formula for checking whether the current date belongs to the current year.

If the error message is produced like the date must be in the current year, then and its location will be the date which you have entered wrongly.

Number range validation

The validation rules had a hold over the range of numbers by testing whether the difference between the two values is less than or greater than a particular set say $20000. The true value is returned which indicates that the user has entered the invalid value for example in the case of stating the maximum salary on the minimum salary has the two values for making comparisons.

If the end-user enters the two sets of values whose difference is greater than 20000 dollars, the validation rule is responsible for returning the response true along with the production of the error message.

What is the action taken by Salesforce for processing the validation rules?

There are a set of five kinds of validation rules and there is a set of priority associated with each rule following the sequence. Salesforce helps in processing the validation rules in the following listed order. The first validation rule sequence projects the implementation of the validation rules for enforcing the integrity constraints for the conditions against the data being entered by the end-user.

The launching of validation rules is based on certain conditions provided in the formula editor for meeting the requirements of the business. These rules need to be followed according to the specified format in the ecosystem. If one of the validation rules gets failed that the salesforce is responsible for applying checks over the other set of validation rules one by one as a part of the field record and ultimately helps in displaying the suitable error message above the record or at the field.

Validation rule fields comprise assignment rules, workflow rules, auto-response rules, and escalation rules following the specific criteria of priority by the salesforce.

The validation rule field restrictions don’t work according to the following listed fields.

These rules don’t refer to the actions including compound fields, first and last, names merge fields, Dependent picklist, and lookups, compound address fields, addresses, camping static fields, etc.

Takeaways

So far, you have read about the Salesforce validation rules and their applicability in maintaining the security associated with the accounts. It delivers the assistance of validating the bills, etc., and ultimately, improves the functioning of the working of the system.