Provide solutions in English

Here are the solutions for question 5 (i):

a) What is validation as used in this context?
Validation, in the context of a social networking site, is the process of checking the accuracy, completeness, and conformity of user-entered data against predefined rules or constraints before it is accepted and stored in the database. This ensures data integrity and quality.

b) Describe one rule each that can be used to validate a person's name, gender, password and email address. Use an alternative rule for each data.

Here are two validation rules for each data type:

• Name:
  • Rule 1: The name must consist only of alphabetic characters (A-Z, a-z) and spaces.
  • Alternative Rule 1: The name must not be empty and must be between 2 and 50 characters in length.
• Gender:
  • Rule 1: The gender must be selected from a predefined list of options (e.g., "Male", "Female", "Non-binary", "Prefer not to say").
  • Alternative Rule 1: The input must be a single character, either 'M' or 'F'.
• Password:
  • Rule 1: The password must be at least 8 characters long and include a combination of uppercase letters, lowercase letters, numbers, and special characters.
  • Alternative Rule 1: The password must not contain the user's username or common dictionary words.
• Email Address:
  • Rule 1: The email address must conform to a standard email format, containing an "@" symbol and at least one period after the "@" symbol (e.g., user@domain.com).
  • Alternative Rule 1: The email address must be unique within the database, meaning it has not been registered by another user.