Match Criteria Data Elements

Data Elements retrieve data from source objects and standardize it for use in matchers and match code generators.

The Data Elements flipper of a decision table defines the initial input data for the match criteria. The output of a data element is used by the selected Matchers (as defined in the topic Match Criteria Matchers). The data elements required are determined by the kind of data being matched, for example, the following image shows data elements for matching on individuals.

A data element retrieves the data required for comparison during matching. This often involves the reduction (or 'normalizing') of data to a matchable form, like making letters lower case in a text string, removing spaces from phone numbers, or expanding abbreviations. Some data elements retrieve data for matching without normalizing.

Data elements can be chained so that the output of one data element can be used as input to another data element. Examples are included in the Chaining Match Expressions to Expand Functionality section of the topic Matching Algorithms and Match Expressions.

Data Element	Data Element Type	Object Type Allowed
Data Element: Attribute Value	General Purpose	Entities Products
Data Element: Business Function Normalizer	General Purpose	Entities Products
Data Element: Constant	General Purpose	Entities Products
Data Element: Function	General Purpose	Entities Products
Data Element: JavaScript Function	General Purpose	Entities Products
Data Element: Address Normalizer v1 (superseded)	Preconfigured	Entities
Data Element: Email Normalizer	Preconfigured	Entities
Data Element: Organization Name Normalizer	Preconfigured	Entities
Data Element: Person Name Normalizer	Preconfigured	Entities
Data Element: Phone Normalizer	Preconfigured	Entities
Data Element: Words Normalizer	Preconfigured	Entities