Configure Match and Merge > Match model properties > Candidate selection criteria
  

Candidate selection criteria

Match candidates are record pairs that are possible matches. The criteria for selecting match candidates depend on business entity fields.
Configure candidate selection criteria that are absolutely necessary to enhance the quality of the match candidates. Having multiple criteria improves quality but affects the performance of the candidate selection process.
A candidate selection criteria consists of the following parameters:

Field name

Field name is the name of the business entity field to use for generating match keys, and then identifying match candidates.
For example, you can select a business entity field, such as Full Name. When you select a field, you need to select a corresponding field type to indicate the type of data the field contains.

File type

A field type indicates the type of data contained in the business entity field that you select as your candidate selection criterion. The fuzzy matching process is effective only when you configure an appropriate field type for the business entity fields.
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.
Generic_Field
Contains generic values that do not belong to other field types.
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.
Person_Name
Contains names of individuals.
Organization_Name|Company_Name
Contains organization names, such as business names, institution names, department names, agency names, or trading names.
Postal_Area
Contains ZIP codes of towns or cities.
Telephone_Number
Contains telephone numbers.
VIN
Contains Vehicle Identification Numbers (VINs).

Key generation level

The key generation level defines the thoroughness with which the match model generates match keys to identify candidates for matching. The key generation levels are extended, limited, and standard.
Decide on a key generation level based on the following considerations:
The following table describes the key generation levels:
Key Generation Level
Description
Extended
Performs a stringent analysis of your data to generate many match keys, which might result in a large number of match candidates. This level ensures reliable matches, but at the cost of long processing time to generate match keys.
If your data volume is not too large and the data quality is poor, use the extended key generation level.
Limited
Performs a quick and lenient analysis of your data to generate few match keys, which might result in few match candidates. This level trades some match reliability for a faster search of match candidates compared to when you use the extended key generation level.
If your data volume is extremely large with variations in word order, use the limited key generation level. The results of the limited key generation level are a subset of the standard level.
Standard
Generates an optimum number of match keys, which in turn results in an optimum number of match candidates. This level balances the reliability of matches and the processing time to generate match keys.

Candidate search level

The match model uses the candidate search level to determine how stringently and thoroughly to search for match candidates. Later, the match model applies the declarative match rules on the match candidates and not on the entire data. You can configure an exhaustive, extreme, narrow, or typical candidate search level.
The match model uses the key generation level and the candidate search level that you define to determine the records that are potential match candidates.
Decide on a candidate search level based on the following considerations:
The following table describes the candidate search levels:
Candidate Search Level
Description
Exhaustive
Performs a lenient search that returns many match candidates. Appropriate for small volumes of data that is not reliable and incomplete. You can also use the exhaustive level for the initial phase of matching and use a more stringent search level for the later phase.
This search level can result in more match candidates than most other search levels, possibly resulting in overmatching, and processes slowly.
Extreme
Performs a lenient search that returns many more match candidates than the exhaustive search level. Appropriate for small volumes of data that is not reliable and incomplete, or if it is critical to find the highest possible number of match candidates. You can also use the extreme level for the initial phase of matching and use a more stringent search level for the later phase.
This search level results in a larger number of match candidates than the other search levels, possibly resulting in overmatching, and processes slowly.
Narrow
Performs a stringent search that returns fewest match candidates. Appropriate for large volumes of data that is reliable and complete or contains a large number of duplicates.
This search level results in fewer match candidates than other search levels, possibly resulting in undermatching, and processes faster.
Typical
Use in most scenarios to search for an optimum number of match candidates.