Find matching entities

The Find Matching Entities feature helps you identify matching entities on the chart, inspect the results and resolve the potential matches.

When you add data to a chart, it is important to try to ensure that multiple items do not represent the same real-world object, event, or relationship. The Find Matching Entities feature in Analyst's Notebook compares chart items and identifies possible matches so you can decide how to resolve them. In addition to matching based on entity labels, you can also look for potential matching entities based on their semantic types, and the meaningful content. When you identify potential matches, you might want to select the matched entities for closer inspection, link the entities for inspection later, or merge the entities.

The following examples demonstrate some types of duplicate data that the Find Matching Entities feature might reveal and describe how you might choose to resolve it:
  • Several entities that have similar labels, such as "Sam STEELE", "SAMSTEELE", and "SAM steele" might exist on your chart. If you have further evidence to support the supposition that these entities all represent the same person, you can merge the entities. All of the information in the entities' properties and all the links to these entities are then stored in a single entity.
  • When you add information to a chart from different sources, data that is potentially the same might be formatted differently. For example, the entities 0123 456 7890 and 01234567890 might represent the same telephone number or a bank account.
  • Many Address entities might have the same post code but have slightly different addresses. More investigation is required to determine whether they are duplicate locations. You can add Match links between the entities to record possible duplication and investigate further.
  • Two Person entities on your chart might have different labels, but the same date of birth and national identifier. This information might indicate that the two names are aliases for the same person. You might choose to link them and investigate further or, if you already have information that indicates that are they same person, you can merge the entities.