Configure Match and Merge > Declarative match rule properties > Match fields
  

Match fields

Match fields are business entity fields that you use in declarative rules to identify matching records. You can configure one or more match fields for each declarative rule.
The following table describes the types of match fields that you can configure:
Match Field
Description
Exact
Business entity fields that contain unique data, such as IDs, postal codes, and industry codes. Use exact match fields for matching identical data.
You can configure exact match fields when you chose an exact or fuzzy match strategy.
Fuzzy
Business entity fields that contain data with variations, such as addresses, geographic coordinates, and names of people or organizations. Use fuzzy match fields for identifying data that are similar.
You can configure fuzzy match fields only when you chose the fuzzy match strategy.
The following table describes the match field properties:
Property
Description
Field Name
Name of the business entity field that you want to use for identifying duplicate records.
Field Type
Applicable to declarative rules with a fuzzy match strategy. The field type indicates the type of data a field contains.
When you configure the match criteria for a fuzzy declarative rule, the required field types are automatically added for the fuzzy match fields.
Comparison Outcome
The result of comparing records to determine whether they are a match. When comparing records with fuzzy match fields, the records that are identified as matches are similar. When comparing records with exact match fields, the records that are identified as matches are identical.

Field type

A field type indicates the type of data a business entity field contains. The fuzzy matching process is effective only when you configure appropriate field types for the match fields.
Each match criteria requires some field types. The following table describes the field types:
Field Type
Description
Address_Part1
Contains address details, such as building name, street number, street name, street type, and apartment details.
Address_Part2
Contains address details, such as city or town name, state name, ZIP code, and country.
Attribute_1|Attribute_2
Contains generic data.
Code
Contains numeric or alphanumeric values, such as license number or vehicle registration number.
CreditCard
Contains credit card numbers.
Date
Contains dates, such as date of birth, expiry date, date of contract, date of change, or issued date.
Email
Contains email addresses.
Geocode
Contains geographic coordinates, such as latitude, longitude, and elevation.
ID
Contains IDs, such as account numbers, registration numbers, license numbers, policy numbers, or Social Security numbers.
ISBN10
Contains the 10-digit International Standard Book Number (ISBN).
ISBN13
Contains the 13-digit ISBN.
Model_Number
Contains model numbers of products.
Organization_Name|Company_Name
Contains organization names, such as business names, institution names, department names, agency names, or trading names.
Person_Name
Contains names of individuals.
Postal_Area
Contains ZIP codes of towns or cities.
Product_Description
Contains description of products.
Product_Name
Contains names of products.
Telephone_Number
Contains telephone numbers.
VIN
Contains Vehicle Identification Numbers (VINs).

Additional required fields and optional fields

Applicable to declarative rules with a fuzzy match strategy. When you add a declarative rule, you must configure the additional required fields along with the required fields.
Additional required fields are required fields but requires at least one of the fields to be configured. For example, for the CC_Issuer criteria, CreditCard is a required field, and Company_Name and Organization_Name are additional required fields. You must select at least one of these additional required fields and map the field name.
You can also add optional fields. For example, for the Wide_Contact criteria, you can add the following additional fields:
The additional required fields and optional fields appear based on the match criteria that you select.