For base objects containing different types of data, the

match subtype

option allows you to apply match rules to specific types of data within the same base object. You have the option to enable or disable match subtyping for

exact-match column

s that have parent/child path components. Match subtype is available only for:

exact-match column types that are based on a non-root Path Component, and
match rules that have a fuzzy match / search strategy

To use match subtyping, for each match rule, specify one or more

exact-match column(s)

that will serve as the “subtyping” column(s) to use. The subtype indicator can be set for any of the exact-match columns regardless of whether they are used for segment match or not. During the match process, evaluation of the subtype column precedes evaluation of the other match columns. Use match subtyping judiciously, because it can have a performance impact on the match process.

Match Subtype behaves just like a standard parent/child matching scenario with the additional requirement that the match column marked as Match Subtype must be the same across all records being matched. In the following example, the Match Subtype column is Address Type and the match rule consists of Address Line1, City, and State.

Without Match Subtype, Parent ID 3 would match with 5 and 7. With Match Subtype, however, Parent ID 3 will not match with 5 nor 7 because the matching rows are distributed between different Address Types. Parent ID 5 and 7 will match with each other, however, because the matching rows all fall within the 'Billing' Address Type.