Templates

Retail Orders

Data Contract Template

Ensure data from retail orders is fresh, complete, and reliable before it is used for revenue reporting, fulfillment tracking, logistics analytics, and customer order accuracy.

Data contract description

This data contract enforces schema stability, a 24-hour freshness SLA on created_at, and required identifiers, timestamps, and address fields for retail order processing. It validates positive order quantities, restricts discount_currency to USD, limits payment_method to approved values, and enforces two-letter country code formatting. These checks prevent incomplete or malformed orders from breaking fulfillment, revenue reporting, and logistics analytics.

Dataset

Defines the dataset this contract applies to, including its source and scope. This is the single point of reference for what data is being validated and protected.

Dataset checks

Validations that apply to the dataset as a whole, including schema stability, data freshness, and overall structural enforcement. This contract includes a schema check to ensure any changes to the dataset structure are detected early. It also defines a freshness check that verifies the data is no more than 24 hours old, based on the created_at timestamp.

Column checks

Column-level rules to ensure data completeness, correctness, and consistency for individual fields. This contract enforces that all core order fields are present, including identifiers, addresses, timestamps, and order value. It requires positive order quantities, restricts discount currency and payment method to approved values, and validates country codes as two-letter format. discount is validated when present but is not required.

retail_orders_data_contract.yml

dataset

checks:
  - schema: {}
  - freshness:
      column: created_at
      threshold:
        unit: hour
        must_be_less_than_or_equal: 24

columns:
  - name: order_id
    data_type: string
    checks:
      - missing:
          name: No missing value
  - name: product_id
    data_type: string
    checks:
      - missing:
          name: No missing values
  - name: customer_id
    data_type: string
    checks:
      - missing:
          name: No missing values
  - name: order_quantity
    data_type: integer
    checks:
      - missing:
      - invalid:
          name: Positive quantity
          valid_min: 1
  - name: discount
    data_type: float
    checks:
      - invalid:
          name: Positive quantity
          valid_min: 1
  - name: discount_currency
    data_type: string
    checks:
      - invalid:
          name: Allowed currency is USD
          valid_values:
            - usd
  - name: billing_address
    data_type: string
    checks:
      - missing:
  - name: shipping_address
    data_type: string
    checks:
      - missing:
  - name: payment_method
    data_type: string
    checks:
      - missing:
      - invalid:
          name: Allowed payment methods
          valid_values:
            - cash
            - credit_card
            - transfer
  - name: order_date
    data_type: dateTime
    checks:
      - missing:
  - name: ship_date
    data_type: dateTime
    checks:
      - missing:
  - name: country_code
    data_type: string
    checks:
      - missing:
      - invalid:
          name: Two-letter country code
          valid_format:
            regex: ^[A-Za-z]{2}$
            name: Exactly two letters
  - name: total_order_value
    data_type: float
    checks:
      - missing:
  - name: created_at
    data_type: dateTime
    checks:
      - missing

Data contract description

Dataset

Defines the dataset this contract applies to, including its source and scope. This is the single point of reference for what data is being validated and protected.

Dataset checks

Column checks

retail_orders_data_contract.yml

dataset

checks:
  - schema: {}
  - freshness:
      column: created_at
      threshold:
        unit: hour
        must_be_less_than_or_equal: 24

columns:
  - name: order_id
    data_type: string
    checks:
      - missing:
          name: No missing value
  - name: product_id
    data_type: string
    checks:
      - missing:
          name: No missing values
  - name: customer_id
    data_type: string
    checks:
      - missing:
          name: No missing values
  - name: order_quantity
    data_type: integer
    checks:
      - missing:
      - invalid:
          name: Positive quantity
          valid_min: 1
  - name: discount
    data_type: float
    checks:
      - invalid:
          name: Positive quantity
          valid_min: 1
  - name: discount_currency
    data_type: string
    checks:
      - invalid:
          name: Allowed currency is USD
          valid_values:
            - usd
  - name: billing_address
    data_type: string
    checks:
      - missing:
  - name: shipping_address
    data_type: string
    checks:
      - missing:
  - name: payment_method
    data_type: string
    checks:
      - missing:
      - invalid:
          name: Allowed payment methods
          valid_values:
            - cash
            - credit_card
            - transfer
  - name: order_date
    data_type: dateTime
    checks:
      - missing:
  - name: ship_date
    data_type: dateTime
    checks:
      - missing:
  - name: country_code
    data_type: string
    checks:
      - missing:
      - invalid:
          name: Two-letter country code
          valid_format:
            regex: ^[A-Za-z]{2}$
            name: Exactly two letters
  - name: total_order_value
    data_type: float
    checks:
      - missing:
  - name: created_at
    data_type: dateTime
    checks:
      - missing

Data contract description

retail_orders_data_contract.yml

dataset

checks:
  - schema: {}
  - freshness:
      column: created_at
      threshold:
        unit: hour
        must_be_less_than_or_equal: 24

columns:
  - name: order_id
    data_type: string
    checks:
      - missing:
          name: No missing value
  - name: product_id
    data_type: string
    checks:
      - missing:
          name: No missing values
  - name: customer_id
    data_type: string
    checks:
      - missing:
          name: No missing values
  - name: order_quantity
    data_type: integer
    checks:
      - missing:
      - invalid:
          name: Positive quantity
          valid_min: 1
  - name: discount
    data_type: float
    checks:
      - invalid:
          name: Positive quantity
          valid_min: 1
  - name: discount_currency
    data_type: string
    checks:
      - invalid:
          name: Allowed currency is USD
          valid_values:
            - usd
  - name: billing_address
    data_type: string
    checks:
      - missing:
  - name: shipping_address
    data_type: string
    checks:
      - missing:
  - name: payment_method
    data_type: string
    checks:
      - missing:
      - invalid:
          name: Allowed payment methods
          valid_values:
            - cash
            - credit_card
            - transfer
  - name: order_date
    data_type: dateTime
    checks:
      - missing:
  - name: ship_date
    data_type: dateTime
    checks:
      - missing:
  - name: country_code
    data_type: string
    checks:
      - missing:
      - invalid:
          name: Two-letter country code
          valid_format:
            regex: ^[A-Za-z]{2}$
            name: Exactly two letters
  - name: total_order_value
    data_type: float
    checks:
      - missing:
  - name: created_at
    data_type: dateTime
    checks:
      - missing

How to Enforce Data Contracts with Soda

Embed data quality through data contracts at any point in your pipeline.

# pip install soda-{data source} for other data sources

pip install soda-postgres

# verify the contract locally against a data source

soda contract verify -c contract.yml -ds ds_config.yml

# publish and schedule the contract with Soda Cloud

soda contract publish -c contract.yml -sc sc_config.yml

Check out the CLI documentation to learn more.

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