1. Customer Hub (UCM) Master Data Management Reference
  2. About the Exact Match Functionality

About the Exact Match Functionality

The exact match functionality is one of the features that you can enable to help prevent the creation of duplicate records. Oracle Customer Hub (UCM) applies the logic for determining whether an incoming record matches an existing record in the following sequence:

  1. If the cross-reference match functionality is enabled, then Oracle Customer Hub (UCM) first searches for the ID of the record in the cross-reference table.

  2. If the cross-reference search does not find a matching record, and if the exact match functionality is enabled, then Oracle Customer Hub (UCM) invokes the exact match functionality (Query By Example or Query By User Key).

  3. If a matching record is not found by the cross-reference search or the exact match search, and if DQ Match is enabled, then Oracle Customer Hub (UCM) invokes DQ Match, using a third-party matching engine.

If none of these searches finds a matching record, then Oracle Customer Hub (UCM) inserts a new record with the data from the incoming record.

An exact match search is successful if a single matching record is returned. For the exact match functionality to return a single matching record, all of the following criteria must be met:

  • All of the fields specified in the Name ExactMatch Field user property or properties for an object (the exact match fields) are present in the incoming record.

    Note: If more than one exact match field is specified for an object, then the exact match functionality combines the exact match fields using the AND operator, and performs a single query for a matching record.

  • All of the exact match fields have a value in the incoming record.

  • The values in the exact match fields in the incoming record are the same as the values in the exact match fields in a single record in the database.

The incoming record is then handled as follows, depending on the result of the exact match search:

  • If the exact match search finds no matching record. In this case, if DQ Match is not enabled, then a new record is inserted with the data from the incoming record. If DQ Match is enabled, then Oracle Customer Hub (UCM) invokes DQ Match.

  • If the exact match search returns a single matching record. In this case, the incoming record is merged with the existing matching record.

  • If the exact match search finds multiple matching records. In this case, if DQ match is not enabled, then the incoming record is flagged for manual review. If DQ Match is enabled, then Oracle Customer Hub (UCM) invokes DQ Match.

To reduce the risk of duplicate records being created, it is recommended that you do the following as a best practice:

  • Deduplicate the data in the database to make sure that there are no duplicate records with the same values in all of the exact match fields.

  • Use the exact match fields as user key columns at the database-table level.