DataFlux Data Management Studio 2.5: User Guide

Overview of Entity Resolution

Entity resolution merges multiple files (or duplicate records within a single file) in such a way that records referring to the same physical object are treated as a single record. Records are matched based on the information that they have in common. The records that you merge appear to be different but can actually refer to the same person or thing. For example, a record for "John Q. Smith at 220 Academy Street" might be the same person as "J. Q. Smith" at the same address.

The first stage in an entity resolution project requires you to create and run a data job that contains one or more Entity Resolution nodes, which perform the following tasks:

• Generating match codes
• Creating clusters
• Identifying surviving records
• Generating an Entity Resolution Output File (the *.SRI file).

The second stage in an entity resolution project requires you to work with the Entity Resolution File. This stage includes the following tasks:

• Examining clusters
• Reviewing the Cluster Analysis section
• Reviewing related clusters
• Processing cluster records