☁️ Azure SQL Data Matching Wizard

1Prerequisites

Before using the Azure SQL Data Matching Wizard, you will need:

• An Interzoid API Key: Register for an account and obtain your unique API license key. This key authenticates your requests and tracks usage credits.
• An Azure SQL Database: You will need either a server name (e.g. myserver.database.windows.net), port, username, and password, or a complete connection string, for a database containing the tables you want to match against.
• A Server Firewall Rule: Azure SQL blocks all outside connections by default. The Interzoid matching service must be permitted through the server-level firewall before it can connect, so add a rule under Networking in the Azure portal if a connection attempt times out.
• Available Credits: Each record processed consumes one API credit. Ensure your account has sufficient credits for the number of records in your table.

2Launch the Wizard and Enter Your API Key

Open the Azure SQL Data Matching Wizard in your browser. Before beginning, enter your Interzoid API key in the top-right area of the header bar. Your key will be saved in your browser for future sessions.

• API Key Field: Type or paste your API key into the input field in the header. Click the lock/eye icon to toggle visibility.
• Check Credits: Click the Credits button to verify your current credit balance before starting a job.
• Language Selection: Click the language dropdown in the navigation bar to switch between any of the 17 supported languages. The entire wizard interface will update immediately. You can also set the language via URL parameter: ?lang=fr for French, ?lang=ja for Japanese, etc.

Once your API key is entered, click Get Started on the introduction screen to begin the wizard.

3Select a Matching Function

The wizard presents six matching functions. Choose the one that matches your data and use case. Each function card shows a description and the column parameters it requires.

Single-Column Functions

These functions analyze one column of data to find matches:

Combination Functions

These functions use two columns together for higher matching precision:

Click on the card for your chosen function, then click Next to proceed.

4Connect to Azure SQL

Enter your connection details and use the cascading dropdown menus to navigate to your data. The wizard connects to Azure SQL in real time and presents the available objects at each level. Azure SQL has no compute warehouse concept, so the connection flow goes directly from credentials to database selection, then to the schema within it.

Connection Flow

The wizard offers two ways to supply your connection details. Use the toggle at the top of the form to switch between them.

Option A: Connection Fields

• Host: The fully qualified server name (e.g. myserver.database.windows.net), exactly as shown on the Overview page of your database in the Azure portal.
• Port: The port your server listens on. Defaults to 1433.
• Username & Password: The credentials for a role with read access to your target tables.
• SSL Mode: How the connection negotiates TLS. verify-full is the default and is the right choice for Azure SQL, which always presents a valid certificate. Use require to encrypt without validating the certificate, which is occasionally needed for a self-managed server with a self-signed certificate, and disable only for a local SQL Server with no TLS configured.

Option B: Connection String

Paste a complete connection string instead of filling in the fields individually. All three standard forms are accepted, including the ADO.NET string the Azure portal provides under Connection strings:

# URL form
sqlserver://user:password@myserver.database.windows.net?database=mydb

# ADO.NET form, as provided by the Azure portal
Server=tcp:myserver.database.windows.net,1433;Initial Catalog=mydb;User ID=bob;Password=secret;Encrypt=True;TrustServerCertificate=False;

# ODBC form
server=myserver.database.windows.net;database=mydb;uid=bob;pwd=secret

When you use a connection string, the database is taken from the string itself, so the wizard skips the database dropdown and goes straight to schema selection. Separate username and password fields are not needed, since the string already carries them.

The connection string field is masked by default. Use the eye icon to reveal it and the clipboard icon to copy it, which is useful if you want to save the string elsewhere or reuse it in another tool.

Connecting and Selecting Your Data

• Connect Button: Click Connect to validate your connection details. If the connection succeeds, the wizard loads your available databases into a dropdown menu. If it fails, an error message will indicate what went wrong.
• Database: Select the database containing the table you want to match against. The wizard then loads the available schemas within that database. This step is skipped when you connect with a connection string, which already names the database.
• Schema: Select the schema that contains your target table. If a dbo schema exists, the wizard preselects it. Built-in schemas such as sys, INFORMATION_SCHEMA, and the fixed database roles are filtered out of the list.

Saving Your Connection Details

Below the credentials is a Remember these connection details on this browser toggle. It is off by default, and nothing connection-related is saved until you turn it on.

• When enabled: The wizard stores your connection mode, host, port, username, password, SSL mode, and connection string in your browser so you do not have to re-enter them next time.
• When disabled: Any previously saved values are erased immediately, not merely left in place.
• On shared computers: Because the stored values include your password, leave this toggle off.

-- Azure SQL Database: run this in the target database
CREATE USER interzoid_reader WITH PASSWORD = 'strong-password-here';
ALTER ROLE db_datareader ADD MEMBER interzoid_reader;

-- SQL Server or Managed Instance: create a login first
CREATE LOGIN interzoid_reader WITH PASSWORD = 'strong-password-here';
CREATE USER interzoid_reader FOR LOGIN interzoid_reader;
ALTER ROLE db_datareader ADD MEMBER interzoid_reader;

Once you have selected a database and schema, click Next to proceed to table and column selection.

5Select Table, Columns, and Options

Choose the table to match against and configure which columns to use for matching and which columns to include in the output.

Table Selection

The wizard presents a dropdown of all tables and views available in the schema you selected. Choose the one containing the records you want to match. Once selected, the wizard loads the column names from that table in their natural column order.

Match Columns

For each matching parameter required by your chosen function, select the corresponding column from the dropdown. For example, if you chose "Company Name Matching," select the column that contains company names.

• Single-column functions: Select one column for the matching parameter.
• Combination functions: Select two different columns, one for each parameter. The two columns must be different.

Output Columns

Use the checkboxes to select which columns from the table you want to include in the match report output. At least one column must be selected. The match columns are automatically included even if you don't check them separately, which ensures the data you matched on always appears in the results.

Output Options

• Show Similarity Keys: When enabled (default), each output record includes the generated similarity key as the last column. Records with the same key are matches. Disable this if you want clean output with only the selected data columns.
• Matches Only: When enabled (default), only records that have at least one other matching record are shown. Disable this to see every record in the table after processing, sorted by similarity key.

Click Next when your selections and options are configured.

6Review and Run

The final screen shows a summary of all your selections: matching function, server, SSL mode, database, schema, table, column assignments, and output options. Review these carefully before proceeding.

Click the green Run Match button to start processing. The wizard will:

• Validate your API key and check that your account has sufficient credits for the job.
• Connect to Azure SQL and read the selected columns from your table.
• Process each record through the selected matching algorithm using concurrent workers for performance.
• Generate the match report with records sorted and grouped into clusters of matching entries.

A progress indicator is shown while the job runs. Processing time depends on the number of records. Most tables complete within seconds, while very large tables (up to 500,000 records) may take a minute or more.

7Interpret the Results

The match report appears in the results panel at the bottom of the screen. Records are organized into clusters, groups of records that the AI has determined to be matches. Each cluster is separated by a blank line for readability.

Example Output

For a company name match on an Azure SQL table with columns Company, Address, City, State and similarity keys enabled:

IBM Corporation,1 New Orchard Rd,Armonk,NY,d477E1d7sG6dja3hDNsk9P
I.B.M. Corp,1 New Orchard Road,Armonk,NY,d477E1d7sG6dja3hDNsk9P

Microsoft Inc.,1 Microsoft Way,Redmond,WA,k8Rp2mNx4wQjL9vB3cYh7T
Microsoft Corporation,One Microsoft Way,Redmond,WA,k8Rp2mNx4wQjL9vB3cYh7T
MSFT Corp,1 Microsoft Way,Redmond,WA,k8Rp2mNx4wQjL9vB3cYh7T

In this example, the first cluster contains two records identified as variations of IBM, and the second cluster contains three records identified as variations of Microsoft. The last column in each row is the similarity key. All records sharing the same key are considered matches.

8Save Your Results

Click the Save Results button above the results panel to download the match report as a CSV file. On supported browsers, a save dialog will appear allowing you to choose the file name and location. On other browsers, the file will download automatically.

The saved file is clean, delimited text that can be imported directly into spreadsheets, databases, or other data processing tools for further analysis.