Appendix C - Configuration Guide - Match Key Functions

The following functions can be applied to any one match key (e.g. TRIM(Address1)) or to multiple match keys (e.g. TRIM(Address1+Address2)), or can be combined (e.g. UPPER(TRIM(Address1))).

• TRIM(field) - Removes leading and trailing whitespace from the field;
• LTRIM(field) - Removes leading whitespace only from the field;
• RTRIM(field) - Removes trailing whitespace only from the field;
• PUNTRIM(field) - Removes all non-alphanumeric characters from the field;
• UPPER(field) - Uppercases the field;
• LOWER(field) - Lowercases the field;
• LEFT(field,count) - Extracts characters from the left of the field; if count exceeds the length then the field is returned as-is;
• RIGHT(field,count) - Extracts characters from the right of the field; if count exceeds the length then the field is returned as-is;
• SUBSTRING(field,start,count) - Extracts characters from within the field (start is 0-based, so use 0 for the first character); the data returned is not padded if there are insufficient characters.

Functions are best used with raw input data (names, address lines, postcodes, etc.) rather than with the key fields generated by the Hub engine (NameKey, AddressKey, etc.).