Dedupe Module - Blank Value

[jramirez]

Hello everyone, I am having confusion on using the "Blank Values" option in Step 2 of the Dedupe Module. It seems like when I set up my conditions, and then turn on "Blank Values" for my MailingStreet field condition, it looks like I'm not getting any duplicate result where one Contact has a mailing street and the other does not. Is it true then that if I turn on "Blank Values" for this field, then that means I won't be able to find duplicates that fulfill all of my conditions except that one has a mailing street and the other does not? I am struggling to figure out how I can make the Dedupe module show me duplicates where the only difference between my Contacts is that one has a mailing address and the other does not.

[jramirez]

It seems like the way to handle my use case is to leave out mailing address from my "Field to Compare" section enirely. That's how I can find potential groups of duplicates even when one of them has a mailing street filled out and the other does not.

[JonG_Validity · Accepted solution]

Hi @jramirez, thanks for your post! When you have Blank Values enabled for one field, you must have another field chosen to compare on that has a non-blank match. For example, if I am comparing on Phone and Mailing Street & have Blank Values enabled for Mailing Street, my suplicate sets would have to match on a populated Phone to be pulled in as a duplicate set.

For your scenario, I would highly suggest removing the Mailing Street as a field to compare & enabling the "Filter Match Results" option on Step 2 of Dedupe. It is located next to the "Add Field to Compare" button. By enabling this, you can add additional criteria to narrow down your actual duplicate sets. I would suggest adding a filter match criteria stating "MailingStreet = [BLANK]" (leave the values box blank; example attached as photo). This will ensure that all duplicate sets in your preview screen have at least one record where the Mailing Street is blank.

Keep in mind that you could still match between accounts where the Mailing Street is blank for both, but this will be sure to match between accounts where one is blank and one is populated.

More information on Filter Match Results can be found within this article. I hope this helps!