Implementation:Sdv dev SDV Inequality Init

Knowledge Sources	SDV SDV Documentation
Domains	Data_Quality, Constraint_Satisfaction
Last Updated	2026-02-14 00:00 GMT

Overview

Concrete tool for enforcing column ordering constraints in synthetic data generation, provided by the SDV library.

Description

The Inequality constraint ensures that values in high_column_name are always greater than (or equal to, depending on strict_boundaries) values in low_column_name. Supports both numerical and datetime columns.

Usage

Create an Inequality instance and add it to a synthesizer via add_constraints before fitting.

Code Reference

Source Location

• Repository: SDV
• File: sdv/cag/inequality.py
• Lines: L27-74

Signature

class Inequality(BaseConstraint):
    def __init__(
        self,
        low_column_name,
        high_column_name,
        strict_boundaries=False,
        table_name=None,
    ):
        """
        Args:
            low_column_name (str): Column with lower values.
            high_column_name (str): Column with higher values.
            strict_boundaries (bool): Use > instead of >=. Defaults to False.
            table_name (str or None): Target table (multi-table). Defaults to None.
        """

Import

from sdv.cag import Inequality

I/O Contract

Inputs

Name	Type	Required	Description
low_column_name	str	Yes	Column containing the lower bound values
high_column_name	str	Yes	Column containing the upper bound values
strict_boundaries	bool	No	Use strict > comparison (default: False, uses >=)
table_name	str or None	No	Target table for multi-table data (default: None)

Outputs

Name	Type	Description
instance	Inequality	Constraint object ready to add to a synthesizer

Usage Examples

from sdv.cag import Inequality

# Ensure end_date is always after start_date
constraint = Inequality(
    low_column_name='start_date',
    high_column_name='end_date',
    strict_boundaries=True,
)

synthesizer.add_constraints([constraint])
synthesizer.fit(data)

Related Pages

Implements Principle

• Principle:Sdv_dev_SDV_Inequality_Constraint

Requires Environment

• Environment:Sdv_dev_SDV_Python_Runtime