You can designate a survivor row from a group of rows linked by a match key. Any row flagged as the survivor is assigned a flag number.
To create a survivor
- From the Navigation or Project View, right-click the Commonizer process and select Edit Process.
- After you specify match key levels, click Advanced.
- Select the Survivor Rules tab.
- Select a rule from the list. Click Add new rule or Delete rule as needed. You can specify up to ten rules of data hierarchy. For example: Rule 1=business, Rule 2=location, Rule 3=contact, and so on.
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Select Test attribute that contains information necessary to select a survivor row. This works in conjunction with the next decision routine setting.
Note: The sequence number attribute cannot be used in the rules.
- Select Decision routine. The decision routines define the rules for selecting survivorship.
- (Optional) Select No Copy Option as needed. The No Copy Option is available only when the non-blank, non-zero, or non-blank/non-zero option is selected for certain routines. See Non-blank and Non-zero Options for details.
- Specify Assigned value. This is a numeric value that will be assigned to the survivor row as a flag.
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Specify the Always Create Survivor option. This option determines how the Commonizer handles the survivor when none of the records match the decision routine.
- Y. The Commonizer creates a survivor. It will set the assigned value in the survivor attribute in the first row of the group, making the first row a survivor. This is the default.
- N. The Commonizer will not create a survivor. For example, if the decision routine is set to "highest non-blank" and all the values in the test attribute are blank, then it is considered that there is no survivor.
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Click Back.
- Example:
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Assume that the best row is the one with the most recent date in the Last_contact_date attribute. This row needs an assigned value of '1' in the Survivor_flag attribute to identify it as the survivor row for the LEV1_MATCHED grouping. The settings are as follows:
Level (Levels tab) 1 Key Attribute (Levels tab) LEV1_MATCHED Rule 1 Test Attribute Last_contact_date Decision Routine Highest non-blank, non-zero character Assigned Value 1 Survivor Attribute (Levels tab) Survivor_flag - The routine looks for the highest character value (non-blank, non-zero) that occurs in the Last_contact_date attribute at a match level of 1.
- Row 1 contains the highest contact date, so the Commonizer takes Row 1 as a survivor. As a result, the Survivor_flag attribute is flagged with a '1'.
LEV1_MATCHED Last_contact_date Acct_rep Survivor flag Row 1 00000013 2005-03-17 JLS 1 Row 2 00000013 2003-01-07 JLS Row 3 00000013 2004-02-08 JLS