Duplicate Matching Rules Operators

Below are explanations of how the different operators work for the purposes of duplicate matching. The operators compare the value from the target object field, which we will call “Target,” with a value from the Big Table record or a static value, which we will call “Source.” All operators are case insensitive, e.g. “TEST” and “test” are treated the same.

Operator Rule

Equals

Target must equal Source

Not Equals

Target must not equal Source

Starts With

Target must begin with the value in Source, with any or no other characters at the end of Target

Contains

The characters in the Source value must be within the Target value, with any or no other characters at the beginning and end of Target

Does Not Contain

The characters in the Source value cannot be found within the Target value

Less Than

The value in Target must be less than the value in Source

Greater Than

The value in Target must be greater than the value in Source

Less or Equal

The value in Target must be less than or equal to the value in Source

Greater or Equal

The value in Target must be greater than or equal to the value in Source

Includes

Target is equal to a value listed in Source. Multiple values may be separate with commas. Do not put spaces after the commas

Excludes

Target is not equal to any value listed in Source. Multiple values may be separated with commas. Do not put spaces after the commas

Street Address Match

Special type of matching useful for street addresses that compares certain values in Target and Source while ignoring others. For example, the street number will be compared but common designators like “Avenue” or “Apt” will be ignore

NA Phone Match

Special type of matching only available if the Target field is of type “phone.” All non-numeric characters will be ignore and then a partial match is done

First N Characters

The first specified number of characters in Target must equal the same characters in Source

First Name Match

The value in Target must match Source or a corresponding nickname from a table of names. The table is found under Setup | Custom Metadata Types | First Name Match

Newest

The target field has the most recent date among all records queried

Oldest

The target field has the most distant date among all records queried

Newest and Oldest are most useful for duplicate matching on child records, because in that case they will only be applied to those child records that are under an already matched parent record.

Duplicate Matching Rules also offers a number of other relative date functions, only available if the target field is a Date or Date/Time field. These functions are identical to the functions that are standard in Salesforce view and report filtering. Details are listed here https://help.salesforce.com/apex/HTViewHelpDoc?id=custom_dates.htm

Operators that Do Not Support Null Values

Whenever the below mentioned operators are being used in any condition for any fields in Duplicate Matching Rules on the mapping page, those fields value cannot not be null (empty) while importing data.

  • Contains
  • Includes
  • Excludes
  • Does Not Contain
  • Starts With
  • Less Than
  • Greater Than
  • Less or Equal
  • Greater or Equal
  • First N Characters
  • Street Address Match


If fields are left blank when the above mentioned operators are being used in this condition, the system will throw the following validation error while importing data: