Siebel Data Quality Administration Guide > Configuring and Using Data Matching >

About Sequenced Merges

When records are merged using a sequence merge, the following events take place:

• All non-NULL fields from the surviving record are kept.
• Any fields that were NULL in the surviving record are populated in the surviving record by information (if any) from the respective fields in the nonsurviving records, based on the sequence number of the nonsurviving record.
• The children and grandchildren (for example, activities, orders, assets, service requests, and so on) of the nonsurviving records are reparented to the retained record.

For example, the number in the Sequence field is used when you want to merge multiple records into one record. If one field of the master record is empty, the Merge button copies the value to the master record from the other records that are going to be merged. The Sequence number prescribes the order of field values to pick from. It is especially useful if many fields are empty, such as when a contact record with a Sequence of 1 has a value for Email address, but its Work Phone # field is empty, and a contact record with a Sequence number of 2 has a value of Work Phone #. If the field Email address and Work Phone # in the retained record are empty, then the value of Email address is picked from sequence number 1 and the value of Work Phone # is picked from record of sequence number 2.

NOTE:  For the merge functionality to operate properly, you must enter a sequence number in the Sequence field. The sequence number is required even if there are only two records (one to be merged and one surviving). However, the retained record is based on the last record you selected using the keyboard or mouse, not the sequence number entered. The sequence number indicates only the sequence in which null fields should be populated from the losing records to the winning record. Do not specify a sequence number for the winning (retained) record.

Field Characteristics for Sequenced Merges

A field must have specific characteristics to be eligible for use in a sequenced merge:

• The field must be active.
• The field must not be a calculated field.

For more information about field characteristics for sequenced merges, perform a search for data quality merge on Siebel SupportWeb (http://ebusiness.siebel.com/supportweb/).