RightFielder API:Best Practices

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Order Input Data in a Logical Order

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If your database structure has columns in a non-intuitive order, reorder the respective columns

to represent a more common order (think of the order for a mailing label). This will help RightFielder

process more accurately.

Example Table layout: ADDRESS FULLNAME CSZ

Recommended Order: FULLNAME ADDRESS CSZ

Maintain Hard Delimiters (and Placement)

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If the the table to be processed originally had hard delimeters (tab, pipe, crlf), maintain or restore

these delimiters before processing with RightFielder. This will help Right Fielder process more

accurately.

Example Table layout: FULLNAME FULLNAME2 ADDRESS CSZ

recommended structure: FULLNAME | FULLNAME2 | ADDRESS | CSZ

Only Process required Fields

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If the table contains un-needed fields or proprietary data types, do NOT add them to the input data

to be processed (unless you have created a SetUserPattern to handle them).

Example Table layout: FULLNAME | BANKACCOUNT | ADDRESS | NEIGHBORHOOD_DESCRIPTION | CSZ

recommended input: FULLNAME | ADDRESS | CSZ

note: if the BANKACCOUNT numbers are always formatted in a consistent manner, create a

SetUserPattern for accurate processing.

Maintain a consistent design of Source Data

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Good input design. How is the data to be RightFielded collected? If you are developing a user interface

with edit controls for input, design for multi-row input which can be padded with hard delimiters by

your application.

Customize handling for Proprietary data types

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If you have proprietary data embedded throughtout your source data, create a

valid regular expression examples for the SetUserPattern method. This helps RightFielder

identify an unknown data format - like a part number or an account number for example - and

will place it in its own category. See the RightFielder documentation and mdRightFielder.cfg example for more details.

Over-ride the distributed Data Files for keywords with alternate meanings

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Data File override. RightFielder allows you to add or override the behavior of known keywords contained

in the default data file mdRightFielder.dat. Open the mdRightFielder.cfg file in a text editor for instructions,

syntax and examples on how to do this.

Example: Xyz Smith. Depending on the rest of the input tokens, it may not be recognized as a name, but

adding 'Xyz' as a name in the cfg file will help process records with previously undefined tokens.

Supply data beyond minimum input

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One of the previous Best Practices recommends against processing too much input. Isn't this suggestion contrawise?

No, configuring RightFielder is a fine line between not enough input and too much input.

Since tokens can have multiple meanings, input data will be more accurately fielded if a minimum input

is met. While no strict standard can be applied, an input that represents a true contact record should be

expected to process more accurately than an input record with a single input token.

Example, less than minimum input: sven miller

Example, more data: sven miller | anytown, ma 01234

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