Check Digit Validator

Reviewed Jan 1, 2000.

• tools: 1 tools scanned
• metadata: scanned

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  Validate the check digit(s) on an IBAN, ISBN-10, ISBN-13, EAN-13, UPC-A, or Luhn-checked card number, and when it fails, try to say which digit is wrong. Use this instead of computing the checksum yourself. Mod-97 arithmetic on a rearranged 15-34 character IBAN, or a weighted sum mod 10/11 over 10-19 digits, is exactly the kind of long deterministic calculation language models get wrong silently and confidently — there is no way for a reader to tell a fabricated "valid" from a real one without redoing the math. This tool actually redoes the math, and when the checksum fails, searches for the single adjacent-digit swap or single-character substitution that would repair it, because a transposed pair is the most common real cause of a bounced payment or a mistyped barcode. IMPORTANT, and easy to get wrong: for ISBN-13/EAN-13/UPC-A and Luhn, the digit alphabet (0-9) almost exactly spans the checksum's modulus, so a failing check usually admits MANY equally valid single-digit substitution