Integrating Data

It is not uncommon to have multiple data sources for the same set of business questions. For example, you may have access to mortgage loan data as well as purchased demographic data for the same set of clients. If these data sets contain the same unique identifier (such as social security number), you can merge them in IBM® SPSS® Modeler using this key field.

There are two basic methods of integrating data:

• Merging data involves merging two data sets with similar records but different attributes. The data is merged using the same key identifier for each record (such as customer ID). The resulting data increases in columns or characteristics.
• Appending data involves integrating two or more data sets with similar attributes but different records. The data is integrated based upon a similar fields (such as product name or contract length).