Formatting Columns for Matching Enhancements

Please review these guidelines if you are using our Identity Resolution or Civis Data Match Tools to match your data.

Column Formatting

When inputting your columns, there are certain acceptable formats for the different types. If you are unsure of whether or not your data adhere to these standards, consider running your data through our Person Data Standardization enhancement.

Zip Code

• Any 5-digit or 9-digit zip code format is acceptable. All non-numeric characters will be removed.

State

• The full name of the State, e.g. Illinois

State Code

• Must be a two-digit state code, e.g. IL

Phone

• Any 10-digit format is acceptable. All non-numeric characters will be removed so it doesn’t matter whether dashes, parentheses, spaces, or periods are used and where they are placed. For example, any of the following will be treated the same

Birth month

• The full name of the month, e.g. January
• The month number, e.g. 1 or 01
• The month abbreviation, e.g. Jan (Note: either Sep or Sept is acceptable for September)

Birth date

• MM/DD/YYYY, e.g. 10/11/2012
• MM-DD-YYYY, e.g. 10-11-2012
• MM-DD-YY, e.g. 10-11-12
• MMM-DD-YYYY, e.g. Oct-11-2012
• Month DD YYYY, e.g. October 11 2012
• YYYY/MM/DD, e.g. 2012/10/11
• YYYYMMDD, e.g. 20121011
• For single-digit days and months, either one digit or two digits with a leading 0 are acceptable in any of the formats listed above (e.g. 5/3/1980, 05/3/1980, 5/03/1980, and 05/03/1980 are all acceptable). The birth date column can be any data type, e.g. string, integer, date.

Gender

• The full name for the gender, e.g. Male or Female
• One-letter abbreviation, e.g. M or F