What match requirements are
A completed Database Verification reports a match result for each piece of information about an end user, such as first name, last name, or birthdate. Match requirements are the rules that decide what counts as a match in the first place.
They are defined per field, so you can hold a last name to a closer match than a street name. A field can carry more than one match requirement, and it is treated as a match as long as one of them is met.
Match requirements are relevant to two commonly used Verification checks, Identity Comparison and Inquiry Comparison.
Where to find it in the Dashboard
Match requirements are part of the Identity Comparison check on a Database Verification Template, so they sit with the rest of the Database Verification configurations rather than on a screen of their own.
You will also meet them from the other direction, in the results view: the tooltip beside a match result lists every match requirement for that field, with a passed or failed marker on each.
Comparison methods and thresholds
Each match requirement pairs a comparison method with a required match level. Persona provides standard methods, some for strings and some for dates or addresses:
- Tokenization splits a string on whitespace or hyphens and counts a partial match if at least one token matches. “Mary-Anne” has one token in common with “Mary”.
- Nickname matching decides whether one string is a nickname of another, such as “Jim” for “James”.
- String difference compares edit distance against a threshold. “Jim” and “Jin” are one apart.
- String similarity scores two strings and compares that score against a threshold.
- Date similarity decides whether two dates are the same, and by default treats two of the three parts matching as partial.
The threshold you set is the line for partial, not the pass or fail line. Setting a postal code to “1 character off” means one character of difference still returns a partial match, while an exact match returns a full match. Setting it to “0 characters off” means nothing passes as partial.
When to reach for it
Usually you should not. For configurations covering the United States, Persona supplies field specific matching logic by default, and in most cases those defaults are sufficient and need no customization. Reach for them when a specific field is producing results you can show to be wrong for your population.
For the settings in detail and a worked example of reading a match result, see Database Verification: Setting match requirements (United States). For how combinations of match requirements are grouped into alternative ways of matching a record, see Understanding match groups.
Plans Explained
Match requirements (United States) by plan
| Startup Program | Essential Plan | Growth Plan | Enterprise Plan | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Match requirements (United States) | Not Available | Available | Available | Available |