Golden record
The single best version of a customer, product, or other entity, assembled from all the records that describe it.
A golden record is built, not found. It may take the name from one source, the address from another, and the phone number from a third, following rules about which source to trust for what.
Where it comes up
- The same entity in two systemsOne person or organization exists in two systems under different identifiers, with nothing linking the records.
- Near-duplicate recordsTwo rows describe the same real thing but differ enough that an exact comparison misses them.
- Duplicate keys with conflicting valuesTwo rows share an identifier that should be unique, but disagree on other fields.
See also
- SurvivorshipThe rules that decide which value is kept when duplicate records are merged and they disagree, such as keeping the most recently updated address.
- Master dataThe core lists an organization relies on across its systems, such as customers, products, suppliers, and locations.
- Entity resolutionDeciding which records refer to the same real-world person, company, or thing, when no shared identifier says so.