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Concept
Check digit
Summary
A check digit is a form of redundancy check used for error detection on identification numbers, such as bank account numbers, which are used in an application where they will at least sometimes be input manually. It is analogous to a binary parity bit used to check for errors in computer-generated data. It consists of one or more digits (or letters) computed by an algorithm from the other digits (or letters) in the sequence input.
With a check digit, one can detect simple errors in the input of a series of characters (usually digits) such as a single mistyped digit or some permutations of two successive digits.
Check digit algorithms are generally designed to capture human transcription errors. In order of complexity, these include the following:
letter/digit errors, such as l → 1 or O → 0
single-digit errors, such as 1 → 2
transposition errors, such as 12 → 21
twin errors, such as 11 → 22
jump transpositions errors, such as 132 → 231
jump twin errors, such as 131 → 232
phonetic errors, such as 60 → 16 ("sixty" to "sixteen")
In choosing a system, a high probability of catching errors is traded off against implementation difficulty; simple check digit systems are easily understood and implemented by humans but do not catch as many errors as complex ones, which require sophisticated programs to implement.
A desirable feature is that left-padding with zeros should not change the check digit. This allows variable length numbers to be used and the length to be changed.
If there is a single check digit added to the original number, the system will not always capture multiple errors, such as two replacement errors (12 → 34) though, typically, double errors will be caught 90% of the time (both changes would need to change the output by offsetting amounts).
A very simple check digit method would be to take the sum of all digits (digital sum) modulo 10. This would catch any single-digit error, as such an error would always change the sum, but does not catch any transposition errors (switching two digits) as re-ordering does not change the sum.
Official source
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