Matching Options

Matching options let you set match restrictions, fallback, and multiple match settings so that the matching can be as strict or relaxed as you need. The strictest matching conditions require an exact match on house number, street name, postal code and no fallback to postal code centroids. The geocoder looks for an exact street address match within the postal code in the input address. Relaxing the conditions broadens the area in which it searches for a match. For example, by relaxing the postal code, the geocoder searches for candidates outside the postal code but within the city of your input address.

Note: As Enterprise Geocoding transitions its administrative tasks to a web-based Management Console, labels for the options may use different wording than what you see in Enterprise Designer. There is no difference in behavior.

Table 1. Matching Options for China
Option Name	Description
Keep multiple matches	Specifies whether to return results when the address matches to multiple candidates in the database. If this option is not selected, an address that results in multiple candidates will fail to geocode. If you select this option, specify the maximum number of candidates to return next to the check box. Specify -1 (minus one) to return all possible candidates.
Return ranges	Specifies whether to return address range information. If you enable this option, the output field `Ranges` will be included in the output. A range is a series of addresses along a street segment. For example, 5400-5499 Main St. is an address range representing addresses in the 5400 block of Main St. A range may represent just odd or even addresses within a segment, or both odd and even addresses. A range may also represent a single building with multiple units, such as an apartment building.
Maximum ranges per candidate	If you choose to return ranges, this option specifies the maximum number of ranges to return for each candidate. Since the geocoder returns one candidate per segment, and since a segment may contain multiple ranges, this option allows you to see the other ranges in a candidate's segment.
Maximum units per range	If you choose to return ranges, this option specifies the maximum number of units (for example, apartments or suites) to return for each range. For example, if you were to geocode an office building at 65 Main St. containing four suites, there would be a maximum of four units returned for the building's range (65 Suite 1, 65 Suite 2, 65 Suite 3, and 65 Suite 4. If you were to specify a maximum number of units as 2, then only two units would be returned instead of all four.
Close matches only	Specifies whether to return only those geocoded results that are close match candidates. For example, if there are 10 candidates and two of them are close candidates, and you enable this option, only the two close matching candidates would be returned instead of all 10. To specify what is considered a close match, use the Close match criteria options. Address candidates are ranked according to how closely the input address matches these preferences.
Match mode	Specifies how to determine whether a candidate is a close match. One of the following: Custom This option allows you to specify which parts of a candidate address must match the input address to be considered a close match. Use the Close match criteria check boxes to specify the address elements you want. This is the default value for most countries. Exact All of a candidate address's elements must match in order for the candidate to be considered a close match. Close Only the candidate address's street name and town must match in order for the candidate to be considered a close match. For Chile, China, Great Britain, Estonia, India, Indonesia, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Taiwan, and South Africa, only the street name and town must match. Relaxed All candidate addresses are considered a close match.
All input	Specifies whether candidates must match all non-blank input fields to be considered a close match. For example, if an input address contains a city and postal code, then candidates for this address must match the city and postal code to be considered a close match.
House number	House number data is not available for every country.
Street	Specifies whether candidates must match the street name to be considered a close match. If a close match is found, the geocoder attempts expanded street name manipulation, which looks for candidates with names that sound like the input address or that are spelled improperly. This slows down performance but increases the match rate . If the geocoding database is indexed, the performance impact is reduced.
Locality	Specifies whether candidates must match the locality (or equivalent) to be considered a close match. The meaning of Locality varies for different countries. If you do not require exact matches on locality, the geocoder searches on the street address matched to the particular postal code, and considers other localities that do not match the name, but do match the postal code. CHN (China)—Locality
City	Specifies whether candidates must match the city to be considered a close match. If you do not require exact matches on city, the geocoder searches on the street address matched to the particular postal code, and considers other cities that do not match the name, but do match the postal code.
County	Specifies whether candidates must match the county (or equivalent) to be considered a close match. The meaning of county varies for different countries. CHN (China)—Not used
State/Province	Specifies whether candidates must match the state or province (or equivalent) to be considered a close match. CHN (China)—Province
Postal code	Specifies whether candidates must match the postal code to be considered a close match. If you do not require exact match on postal codes, the geocoder searches a wider area for a match. While this results in slower performance, the match rate is higher because the request does not need to match exactly when it compares match candidates. Specifies whether candidates must match the postal code to be considered a close match. If you do not require exact match on postal codes, the geocoder searches a wider area for a match. While this results in slower performance, the match rate is higher because the request does not need to match exactly when it compares match candidates.

You may want to use a balanced strategy between match rate and geographic precision. That is, you may want to geocode as many records as possible automatically, but at the same time want to minimize the number of weaker matches (false positives). For example, false positives can occur when the geocoder:

finds a street that sounds like the input street.
finds the same street in another city (if postal code match is not required).
finds the street but with a different house number (if house number is not required).

The following settings may achieve a good balance between match rate and precision:

Close matches only—Select this option.
Close match criteria—Select House number and Street only.
Postal centroid—Do not select this fallback level.