Creating data groups

AD
DM

Define data groups in match configurations to group similar incoming data for comparison to streamline the match process.

Best practice

Use the following guidelines to build effective data groups.

  • The maximum size of each group should not exceed 1000 entries. Matching stops at the 1000th entry, so data groups that have more than 1000 entries will cause obvious matches to be ignored.
  • Use only as many data groups, or information in each data group, as you need. The greater the number of data groups or the larger each group, the longer the match process takes. However, you must ensure that you capture most or all possible combinations of the data in the incoming file to ensure matches are not overlooked.
  • Fields used in data groups must exist in the incoming file.
  • Configure data groups precisely. Data grouping uses exact matches only; it does not consider fuzzy matches. For example, if one of the data group definitions groups on corporate name alone, you won’t be able to compare HCOs with similar names in that particular group because each group contain one unique corporate name.

Create a data group

  1. To the right of the data group list header, click the Entity drop-down list and select HCP or HCO to work with.
  2. Click the + Add Data Group link at the bottom of the list (or the + button at the top right of the list) to add more items to the group.
  3. Type a descriptive name for the new group.
  4. Type fields to include in the group. As you type, auto-complete options appear.
  5. Click the Allow null fields field and select fields in the group for which empty fields are allowed. (Fields in the data group that are not listed here will not allow null field values.) Null value options must be applied to all fields on an entity or object.
  6. Click the Enabled checkbox to include this data group in the matching process.
  7. Include optional descriptive comments for the data group and click Done to add the new data group.
  8. Click Save at the top of the page to save these changes to the subscription.

Note: The Allow null fields option will not allow null blocks to be created. If an incoming record has no values in the field or fields specified in an individual data group, a block will not be created for that particular definition. If the incoming record does not have values in all of the fields specified in the entire data group definition, that record will fail during the load and an error message will be displayed in the job details.

Create data groups in Advanced mode

Data groups can be defined using XML.

For details, see Defining match configurations in Advanced mode.