Transformation Guide

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Association Transformation Overview

The Association transformation processes output data from a Match transformation. It creates links between duplicate records that are assigned to different match clusters, so that these records can be associated together in data consolidation and master data management operations.

The Association transformation generates an

AssociationID

value for each row in a group of associated records and writes the ID values to an output port.

The Consolidation transformation reads the output from the Association transformation. Use a Consolidation transformation to create a master record based on records with common association ID values.

The Association transformation accepts string and numerical data values on input ports. If you add an input port of another data type, the transformation converts the port data values to strings.

The AssociationID output port writes integer data. The transformation can write string data on an AssociationID port if the transformation was configured in an earlier version of Informatica Data Quality.

Example: Associating Match Transformation Outputs

The following table contains three records that could identify the same individual:

ID	Name	Address	City	State	ZIP	SSN
1	David Jones	100 Admiral Ave.	New York	NY	10547	987-65-4321
2	Dennis Jones	1000 Alberta Ave.	New Jersey	NY	-	987-65-4321
3	D. Jones	Admiral Ave.	New York	NY	10547-1521	-

A duplicate analysis operation defined in a Match transformation does not identify all three records as duplicates of each other, for the following reasons:

If you define a duplicate search on name and address data, records 1 and 3 are identified as duplicates but record 2 is omitted.

If you define a duplicate search on name and Social Security number data, records 1 and 2 are identified as duplicates but record 3 is omitted.

If you define a duplicate search on all three attributes (name, address, and Social Security number), the Match transformation may identify none of the records as matches.

The Association transformation links data from different match clusters, so that records that share a cluster ID are given a common AssociationID value. In this example, all three records are given the same AssociationID, as shown in the following table:

ID	Name	Address	City	State	Zip	SSN	Name and Address Cluster ID	Name and SSN Cluster ID	Association ID
1	David Jones	100 Admiral Ave.	New York	NY	10547	987-65-4320	1	1	1
2	Dennis Jones	1000 Alberta Ave.	New Jersey	NY	-	987-65-4320	2	1	1
3	D. Jones	Alberta Ave.	New York	NY	10547-1521	-	1	2	1

You can consolidate the duplicate record data in the Consolidation transformation.

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Table of Contents

Transformation Guide

Transformation Guide

Association Transformation Overview

Association Transformation Overview

Example: Associating Match Transformation Outputs