Creating a New Match Key

The match key generator allows you to define rules for your match key with various options depending on your requirements. You can define any number of rules for a single match key.
To create a new match key, perform these steps:
  1. On the Match Key Generator Options page, select Create Match Key from the Match Keys panel located on the left corner of the page.
  2. (Optional) If you want to create a new match key by using an existing match key stored in the repository with predefined rules, select Copy From Repository. For more information, see Creating a Match Key from Repository.
  3. In the Match key name field, enter a unique name for the match key you want to create.
  4. To define the rule for your match key, select Add.
    You see the Rule Options panel on the right corner of the page.
  5. In the Rule Options panel, configure these options:
    Option Description
    Algorithm
    Consonant
    It returns specified fields with consonants removed.
    Double Metaphone
    It returns a code based on a phonetic representation of their characters. Double Metaphone is an improved version of the metaphone algorithm and attempts to account for the many irregularities found in different languages.
    Koeln
    Indexes names by sound as they are pronounced in German. It allows names with the same pronunciation to be encoded to Koeln the same representation so that they can be matched, despite minor differences in spelling. The result is always a sequence of numbers; special characters and white spaces are ignored. This option was developed to respond to the limitations of Soundex.
    MD5
    It is a message-digest algorithm that produces a 128-bit hash value, which is used to check data integrity.
    Metaphone
    It returns a Metaphone coded key of selected fields. Metaphone is an algorithm for coding words using their English pronunciation.
    Metaphone (Spanish)
    It returns a Metaphone coded key of selected fields for the Spanish language. This Metaphone algorithm codes words using their Spanish pronunciation.
    Metaphone3
    It improves upon the Metaphone and Double Metaphone algorithms with a more exact consonant and internal vowel Metaphone3 settings that allow you to produce words or names more or less closely matched to search terms on a phonetic basis. Metaphone3 increases the accuracy of phonetic encoding to 98%. This option was developed to respond to the limitations of Soundex.
    Nysiis
    It is a phonetic code algorithm that matches an approximate pronunciation to an exact spelling and indexes words that are Nysiis pronounced similarly. It is a part of the New York State Identification and Intelligence System. For example, you are looking for someone's information in a database of people. You believe that the person's name sounds like "John Smith," but it is, in fact, spelled "Jon Smyth." If you conducted a search looking for an exact match for "John Smith," no results would be returned. However, if you index the database using the NYSIIS algorithm and search using the NYSIIS algorithm again, the correct match will be returned because both "John Smith" and "Jon Smyth" are indexed as "JAN SNATH" by the algorithm.
    Phonix
    It preprocesses name strings by applying more than 100 transformation rules to single characters or to sequences of several characters. Nineteen of those rules are applied only if the characters are at the beginning of the string, while 12 of the rules are applied if they are in the middle of the string, and 28 of the rules are applied if they are at the end of the string. The transformed name string is encoded into a code that is comprised by a starting letter followed by three digits (removing zeros and duplicate numbers). This option was developed to respond to the limitations of Soundex; it is more complex and, therefore, slower than Soundex.
    Sonnex
    This algorithm determines the similarity between 2 French-language strings based on the phonetic representation of their characters. It returns a Sonnex coded key of the selected fields.
    Soundex
    It returns a Soundex code of selected fields. Soundex produces a fixed-length code based on the English pronunciation of a word.
    Substring
    It returns a specified portion of the selected field.
    Field name Select the field to which you want to apply the selected algorithm. For example, if you select LastName, and you choose the SubString algorithm, the SubString algorithm is applied to the data in the LastName field to produce a match key.
    Start Position Select the start position within the specified field.
    Note: You can select a start position only if you choose the SubString algorithm.
    Length Select the length of characters you want to include from the starting position.
    Note: You can select a length only if you choose the SubString algorithm.
    Pre-processing options
    Remove noise character
    It removes all non-numeric and non-alpha characters such as hyphens, white space, and other special characters from an input field.
    Sort input
    It sorts all characters or terms in an input field in alphabetical order.
    • Characters: It sorts the values of the characters from an input field prior to creating a unique ID.
    • Terms: It sorts each term value from an input field prior to creating a unique ID.
    Note: You can select the sort input only if you choose the Consonant or SubString algorithm.
  6. Select OK.
    The rule you define for the match key appears below Rules on the Create Match Key workspace.
  7. (Optional) If you want to deactivate the rule for the match key, clear the Active checkbox.
  8. (Optional) Select the Modify button to modify the rule.
  9. (Optional) Select the Delete button to delete the rule.
  10. (Optional) Follow steps 4 through 5 to define any number of rules for your match key.
  11. On the right corner, select Create.
    Your match key is created and appears on the Match Keys panel located on the left corner. You can see the preview of the match key at the bottom of the page.
    Note: If you want to update the match key, you can select and edit the match key from the Match Keys panel.
  12. (Optional) If you want to store your match key in the repository for re-use:
    1. Select Publish.
    2. On the Publish Match Key panel, enter a name with which you want to store the match key in the repository. In case a match key is already stored with the same name, you can:
      • Enter a unique name in the Match key name field, or
      • Select the override checkbox to override the existing match key.
    3. Select OK.
    Note: You can regulate the access to your match key if you do not want any other user to re-use them. For more information, see Configuring Access Control for Match Key.
  13. On the top-right corner of the page, select Apply.
    Your match key applies to the match key generator stage in the dataflow.