What is checking that an input meets certain criteria known as?

The process of ensuring that an input meets specific criteria is referred to as input validation. This is a crucial step in software development, as it helps to confirm that the data entered by users conforms to defined rules or standards, which can include checks on data type, format, length, and range.

Input validation is necessary to prevent errors or unexpected behavior in applications. For instance, if a system expects a numerical value, input validation will check whether the provided data is indeed a number. This helps maintain data integrity and enhances the overall security of an application by protecting it against potentially malicious inputs that could exploit vulnerabilities.

While data verification and data validation are related concepts, they typically serve different purposes. Data verification often refers to the process of ensuring that data is accurate and matches certain criteria after it has been collected, while data validation can include various types of checks beyond just input criteria.

Input sanitation refers to the process of cleaning and filtering data to remove unwanted characters or dangerous inputs, often to prevent security threats like SQL injection. However, input validation focuses more on ensuring that the input is correct and acceptable according to predefined rules before it is processed by the system.