---
schema_version: "1"
id: 92a42596786131dff234a0f8464584b566784f1f24183e53348907d34633a06f
title: Identity Resolution Match Methods
collection: admin
version: current
locale: en-us
portal_url: https://docs.salesforce.com/admin/current/en-us/data/264-0-0/c360_a_match_rules_criteria_fuzzy_normalized.md
canonical_url: https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=data.c360_a_match_rules_criteria_fuzzy_normalized.htm&release=264.0.0&type=5
source_site: help.salesforce.com
content_type: documentation
content_hash: 3286f56ec3c886d152802d5bf0066873ef9e58d7d1bac967bfac8d7987090e04
description: Match rule methods determine how source data is transformed for comparison during matching. Changing the match method on a field typically changes the consolidation rate based on that field.
products:
  - Data 360
release: "264"
---
# Identity Resolution Match Methods

Match rule methods determine how source data is transformed for comparison during matching. Changing the match method on a field typically changes the consolidation rate based on that field.

![Warning](https://sf-zdocs-cdn-prod.zoominsoftware.com/tdta-data-data_cloud-264-0-0-production-enus/f3569962-3c9b-4f83-9d0c-b6a574e785da/images/icon_warning.png)

Warning Data is transformed for matching purposes when the Fuzzy and Exact Normalized match methods are selected. However, reformatted data is not stored in unified profiles. The format of the value stored in a unified profile is based on source data and determined by reconciliation rules.

Match methods describe the precision with which data is matched during identity resolution. The anticipated consolidation rate is lower when precision matching is required. Selecting a less precise match method typically raises the consolidation rate, but can result in undesirable matches.

Up to five match methods are available for use in creating criteria for custom match rules. The match methods available for each object and field vary. Fuzzy match methods aren’t available for fields from the Account object.

- Exact
- Exact Normalized
- Fuzzy - High Precision
- Fuzzy - Medium Precision
- Fuzzy - Low Precision

You can refine custom match criteria further by allowing matches to be made between blank fields.

![Tip](https://sf-zdocs-cdn-prod.zoominsoftware.com/tdta-data-data_cloud-264-0-0-production-enus/f3569962-3c9b-4f83-9d0c-b6a574e785da/images/icon_tip.png)

Tip To determine the most effective match method for your data, configure multiple rulesets with different criteria. Compare consolidation rates and decide which match method works best for your unified profiles.

## Exact Match Method

The **Exact** match method is available for all objects and fields. If this match method is used, values match regardless of case.

![Example](https://sf-zdocs-cdn-prod.zoominsoftware.com/tdta-data-data_cloud-264-0-0-production-enus/f3569962-3c9b-4f83-9d0c-b6a574e785da/images/icon_example.png)

Example

Because exact match is case-insensitive, these four source data values are an exact match:

- Maryanne
- maryanne
- MARYANNE
- MaryAnne

## Exact Normalized Match Method

The **Exact Normalized** match method is available for specific fields for the Contact Point Email, Phone, and Address objects.

When this match method is selected, source data is transformed to address issues like trailing spaces, inconsistent formatting, special characters, and more.

<table class="slds-table slds-table_bordered slds-max-medium-table_stacked slds-m-bottom_small ">
        <colgroup>
          <col style="width:25%">
          <col style="width:25%">
          <col style="width:50%">
        </colgroup>
        <thead class="slds-text-title_caps ">
          <tr class="">
            <th scope="col" class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;" id="d52728e122">Object</th>
            <th scope="col" class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;" id="d52728e125">Fields with Exact Normalized Match Method Support</th>
            <th scope="col" class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;" id="d52728e128">Normalization Process</th>
          </tr>
        </thead>
        <tbody>
          <tr class="">
            <td data-label="Object" class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;" headers="d52728e122 ">Individual</td>

            <td data-label="Fields with Exact Normalized Match Method Support" class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;" headers="d52728e125 ">
              <ul>
                <li>First Name</li>

              </ul>
            </td>

            <td data-label="Normalization Process" class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;" headers="d52728e128 ">
              <ul>
                <li>Standardizes capitalization so that matches are case-insensitive </li>

              </ul>
            </td>

          </tr>
          <tr class="">
            <td data-label="Object" class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;" headers="d52728e122 ">Contact Point Email</td>

            <td data-label="Fields with Exact Normalized Match Method Support" class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;" headers="d52728e125 ">
              <ul>
                <li>Email Address</li>

              </ul>
            </td>

            <td data-label="Normalization Process" class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;" headers="d52728e128 ">
              <ul>
                <li>Standardizes capitalization so that matches are case-insensitive</li>

                <li>Removes white space from the beginning and end of an email address</li>

                <li>Removes non-alphanumeric characters like quotes (<code>“”</code>) and
                  brackets (<code>&lt;&gt;</code>) from email address</li>

                <li>For email addresses with the gmail.com domain, removes both period (.) and
                  plus (+) characters from email address</li>

              </ul>
            </td>

          </tr>
          <tr class="">
            <td data-label="Object" class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;" headers="d52728e122 ">Contact Point Phone</td>

            <td data-label="Fields with Exact Normalized Match Method Support" class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;" headers="d52728e125 ">
              <ul>
                <li>Formatted E164 Phone Number</li>

              </ul>
            </td>

            <td data-label="Normalization Process" class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;" headers="d52728e128 ">
              <ul>
                <li>Removes white spaces from phone number</li>

                <li>Removes non-alphanumeric-characters like asterisk (<code>*</code>) and
                  parentheses (<code>()</code>) from phone number</li>

                <li>Validates phone number with <a href="https://github.com/google/libphonenumber" target="_blank">Google's common Java, C++ and JavaScript library for parsing, formatting, and
                    validating international phone numbers</a></li>

                <li>Uses the country code or name for normalization if it’s available or
                  identifiable based on contact point phone or address records.<ul>
                    <li>If a country code is provided and mapped to the phone country code field
                      (<samp class="parmname">ssot__CountryCode__c</samp>) in the Contact Point Phone
                      DMO, the country code is used for normalization.</li>

                    <li>If the country code isn't available, and if the country name is provided
                      and mapped to the country name field
                      (<samp class="parmname">ssot__CountryId__c</samp>) in the Contact Point Phone DMO,
                      the country name is used for normalization.</li>

                    <li>If a country code or name isn't identifiable from data in the Contact
                      Point Phone DMO, and Contact Point Address DMO exists with a valid mapping
                      to country name, the country name in Contact Point Address DMO is used for
                      normalization.</li>

                    <li>If a country code or name isn't available, the phone number is normalized
                      without it.</li>

                  </ul>
                </li>

              </ul>
              <p style="margin-bottom:0;">For data sources with phone number country codes, map the Phone Country Code field.</p>
            </td>

          </tr>
          <tr class="">
            <td data-label="Object" class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;" headers="d52728e122 ">Contact Point Address</td>

            <td data-label="Fields with Exact Normalized Match Method Support" class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;" headers="d52728e125 ">
              <ul>
                <li>Address Line 1</li>

                <li>Address Line 2</li>

                <li>Address Line 3</li>

                <li>State Province</li>

                <li>Country</li>

              </ul>
            </td>

            <td data-label="Normalization Process" class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;" headers="d52728e128 ">
              <ul>
                <li>Standardized based on country-specific rules for addresses</li>

              </ul>
            </td>

          </tr>
        </tbody>
      </table>

![Example](https://sf-zdocs-cdn-prod.zoominsoftware.com/tdta-data-data_cloud-264-0-0-production-enus/f3569962-3c9b-4f83-9d0c-b6a574e785da/images/icon_example.png)

Example

These source data values are an exact normalized match:

<table class="slds-table slds-table_bordered slds-max-medium-table_stacked slds-m-bottom_small " summary="Contact Point Email Object">
            <caption>Contact Point Email Object</caption>
            <colgroup>
              <col style="width:50%">
              <col style="width:50%">
            </colgroup>
            <thead class="slds-text-title_caps ">
              <tr class="">
                <th scope="col" class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;" id="d52728e320">Source Values</th>
                <th scope="col" class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;" id="d52728e323">Exact Normalized Email Address Field Value </th>
              </tr>
            </thead>
            <tbody>
              <tr class="">
                <td data-label="Source Values" class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;" headers="d52728e320 ">
                  <ul>
                    <li>&lt;MichelleNoris@gmail.com&gt;</li>

                    <li>"MichelleNoris"@gmail.com</li>

                    <li>michellenoris@gmail.com</li>

                  </ul>
                </td>

                <td data-label="Exact Normalized Email Address Field Value" class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;" headers="d52728e323 ">michellenoris@gmail.com</td>

              </tr>
            </tbody>
          </table>

![Example](https://sf-zdocs-cdn-prod.zoominsoftware.com/tdta-data-data_cloud-264-0-0-production-enus/f3569962-3c9b-4f83-9d0c-b6a574e785da/images/icon_example.png)

Example

These source data values are an exact normalized match:

<table class="slds-table slds-table_bordered slds-max-medium-table_stacked slds-m-bottom_small " summary="Contact Point Phone Object">
            <caption>Contact Point Phone Object</caption>
            <colgroup>
              <col style="width:50%">
              <col style="width:50%">
            </colgroup>
            <thead class="slds-text-title_caps ">
              <tr class="">
                <th scope="col" class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;" id="d52728e376">Source Values</th>
                <th scope="col" class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;" id="d52728e379">Exact Normalized Formatted E164 Phone Number Field Value</th>
              </tr>
            </thead>
            <tbody>
              <tr class="">
                <td data-label="Source Values" class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;" headers="d52728e376 ">
                  <ul>
                    <li>+1 (650) 277-9500</li>

                    <li>+1 650 277-9500</li>

                    <li>1 (650) 277-9500</li>

                  </ul>
                </td>

                <td data-label="Exact Normalized Formatted E164 Phone Number Field Value" class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;" headers="d52728e379 ">+16502779500</td>

              </tr>
            </tbody>
          </table>

![Example](https://sf-zdocs-cdn-prod.zoominsoftware.com/tdta-data-data_cloud-264-0-0-production-enus/f3569962-3c9b-4f83-9d0c-b6a574e785da/images/icon_example.png)

Example

These source data values are an exact normalized match:

<table class="slds-table slds-table_bordered slds-max-medium-table_stacked slds-m-bottom_small " summary="Contact Point Address Object">
            <caption>Contact Point Address Object</caption>
            <colgroup>
              <col style="width:33.33333333333333%">
              <col style="width:33.33333333333333%">
              <col style="width:33.33333333333333%">
            </colgroup>
            <thead class="slds-text-title_caps ">
              <tr class="">
                <th scope="col" class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;" id="d52728e433">Source Values</th>
                <th scope="col" class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;" id="d52728e436">Exact Normalized Address Line 1 and Address Line 2 Field Values</th>
                <th scope="col" class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;" id="d52728e439">Exact Normalized State Province and Country Field Values </th>
              </tr>
            </thead>
            <tbody>
              <tr class="">
                <td data-label="Source Values" class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;" headers="d52728e433 ">
                  <p>Source 1</p>
                  <ul>
                    <li>Address Line 1: 220 Laurier Avenue West </li>

                    <li>Address Line 2: Suite 1000</li>

                    <li>State Province: ON</li>

                    <li>Country: CA</li>

                  </ul>
                  <p>Source 2</p>
                  <ul>
                    <li>Address Line 1: 220 Laurier Ave W</li>

                    <li>Address Line 2: Ste 1000</li>

                    <li>State Province: Ontario</li>

                    <li>Country: Canada</li>

                  </ul>
                </td>

                <td data-label="Exact Normalized Address Line 1 and Address Line 2 Field Values" class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;" headers="d52728e436 ">220 Laurier Ave W Ste 1000</td>

                <td data-label="Exact Normalized State Province and Country Field Values" class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;" headers="d52728e439 ">Ontario Canada</td>

              </tr>
              <tr class="">
                <td data-label="Source Values" class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;" headers="d52728e433 ">
                  <p>Source 1</p>
                  <ul>
                    <li>Address Line 1: 56 Abascal</li>

                    <li>Address Line 2: Calle de José</li>

                    <li>State Province: Madrid</li>

                    <li>Country: ES</li>

                  </ul>
                  <p>Source 2</p>
                  <ul>
                    <li>Address Line 1: Abascal 56</li>

                    <li>Address Line 2: Calle de José</li>

                    <li>State Province: Madrid</li>

                    <li>Country: Spain</li>

                  </ul>
                </td>

                <td data-label="Exact Normalized Address Line 1 and Address Line 2 Field Values" class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;" headers="d52728e436 ">Calle De José Abascal 56</td>

                <td data-label="Exact Normalized State Province and Country Field Values" class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;" headers="d52728e439 ">Madrid Spain</td>

              </tr>
            </tbody>
          </table>

![Tip](https://sf-zdocs-cdn-prod.zoominsoftware.com/tdta-data-data_cloud-264-0-0-production-enus/f3569962-3c9b-4f83-9d0c-b6a574e785da/images/icon_tip.png)

Tip Exact normalized matches generally lead to higher consolidation rates than exact matches. To determine the most effective match method for your data, configure multiple rulesets. Compare the consolidation rate of each ruleset and decide which works best for our data.

## Fuzzy Match Methods

The **Fuzzy** match methods are available for most fields.

If any of these match methods are used, matches are based on an Artificial Intelligence (AI) model trained with data from over 150 countries, 3 billion English words, and 20 million names. The AI model is built with the Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers (BERT) Language Model to match common misspellings, diacritical marks, synonyms, and more. The AI model has a 0.7 confidence threshold.

To allow more control over the granularity of matching, three levels of precision are available: high, medium, and low precision.

<table class="slds-table slds-table_bordered slds-max-medium-table_stacked slds-m-bottom_small " summary="Fuzzy Matching Precision Levels">
        <caption>Fuzzy Matching Precision Levels</caption>
        <colgroup>
          <col style="width:20%">
          <col style="width:40%">
          <col style="width:40%">
        </colgroup>
        <thead class="slds-text-title_caps ">
          <tr class="">
            <th scope="col" class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;" id="d52728e586">Precision Level</th>
            <th scope="col" class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;" id="d52728e589">Description</th>
            <th scope="col" class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;" id="d52728e592">Matching Values</th>
          </tr>
        </thead>
        <tbody>
          <tr class="">
            <td data-label="Precision Level" class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;" headers="d52728e586 ">Low Precision</td>

            <td data-label="Description" class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;" headers="d52728e589 ">Matches values with loose similarities.</td>

            <td data-label="Matching Values" class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;" headers="d52728e592 ">
              <ul>
                <li>Lisa, Liza</li>

                <li>Cathi, Cathy</li>

                <li>Lucia, Luc </li>

              </ul>
            </td>

          </tr>
          <tr class="">
            <td data-label="Precision Level" class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;" headers="d52728e586 ">Medium Precision</td>

            <td data-label="Description" class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;" headers="d52728e589 ">Matches values with the same initials, gender variants, shuffled names, and similar
              subnames.</td>

            <td data-label="Matching Values" class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;" headers="d52728e592 ">
              <ul>
                <li>S., Sharon</li>

                <li>A.M., Anthony Michael</li>

                <li>Cathi, Cathie</li>

                <li>Lilian, Liliana</li>

                <li>Gabriel, Gabrielle</li>

                <li>José Andrés, Pepe</li>

                <li>Joey James, James Joseph </li>

              </ul>
            </td>

          </tr>
          <tr class="">
            <td data-label="Precision Level" class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;" headers="d52728e586 ">High Precision</td>

            <td data-label="Description" class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;" headers="d52728e589 ">Matches values across nicknames, punctuation, international abbreviations,
              international alphabet characters, and cross-cultural spellings.</td>

            <td data-label="Matching Values" class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;" headers="d52728e592 ">
              <ul>
                <li>Beatriz, Beatrice</li>

                <li>William, Bill</li>

                <li>Mary-Jo, MaryJo </li>

                <li>Håkon, Hakon</li>

                <li>Catherine, Katherine </li>

              </ul>
            </td>

          </tr>
        </tbody>
      </table>

![Tip](https://sf-zdocs-cdn-prod.zoominsoftware.com/tdta-data-data_cloud-264-0-0-production-enus/f3569962-3c9b-4f83-9d0c-b6a574e785da/images/icon_tip.png)

Tip Fuzzy matches generally lead to higher consolidation rates than exact matches. To determine the most effective match method for your data, configure multiple rulesets with different criteria. Compare consolidation rates and decide which match method works best for your unified profiles.

#### See Also

- [_Salesforce Help_: Advanced Match Criteria Settings](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=data.c360_a_match_rules_advanced_settings.htm&release=264.0.0&type=5 "Access match rule modifier settings in Advanced Match Criteria Settings for each match rule.")