Synonym lookup

The Synonym lookup transformation is a critical part of DataCleaner's ability to standardize and cleanse data. Using this component you can look up values in a synonym catalog and have it replaced with its master term, if it is found to be a synonym.

Below is a screenshot of the synonym lookup's configuration panel:

The configuration of the Synonym lookup is simple:

  1. Select the column to apply the lookup function to.

  2. Use the 'Retain original value' option to determine if unmatched values (non-synonyms) should be retained or if a null value should be returned if there is no match.

  3. Select the synonym catalog to use for lookups.

If your synonym catalog contains all the allowed values for a particula column, it can be a good idea to uncheck the 'Retain original value' checkbox and then do a simple null-check on the resulting output column. If null values are found, it's because there are values in the column that the synonym catalog is not able to standardize.