What control should be recommended to prevent out-of-range data occurrences in a database?

Implementing integrity constraints in the database is the most effective control for preventing out-of-range data occurrences. Integrity constraints are rules that ensure the accuracy and reliability of the data within a database. By defining specific conditions, such as permissible value ranges for fields, uniqueness requirements, and referential integrity rules, integrity constraints prevent data entry that does not meet predefined criteria.

For instance, if an application needs to store age values between 0 and 120, an integrity constraint can be set to ensure that any entry outside of this range is rejected. This mechanism inherently protects the integrity of the data upon input, thus preventing any erroneous or out-of-range data from being saved in the database.

Other options, while useful in different contexts, do not directly address the prevention of out-of-range data. Logging table update transactions would help track changes and identify when errors occur, but it does not stop invalid data from being entered initially. Before-and-after image reporting provides visibility into data changes over time, which is helpful for auditing purposes but does not prevent the initial entry of out-of-range data. Tracing and tagging can assist in monitoring data flows and access patterns but are not specifically designed to enforce data validity rules. Thus, integrity constraints stand out as the primary control to ensure