Loading data into a database whether it is Oracle or MySQL, involves passing a lot of hurdles.  If you’re working with CSV files, special characters may cause trouble, end of line characeters, very long lines, and so forth.

Once your data load is complete, spot checks involve basic checks to determine that all went well.  Counting the number of records which should have been loaded and comparing the table’s count before and after the load, would be one simple spot check.

These types of checks are a basic once over, as opposed to a more thorough and rigorous analysis of the data, for example calculating checksums, that can guarantee that a data load completed and all data is in good shape.

Quora discussion – What are data spot checks and why are they important?

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