Combine combine
The Combine activity is a Targeting activity. This activity allows you to perform segmentation on your inbound population. You can thus combine several populations, exclude part of it or only keep data common to several targets. Here are the available segmentation types:
- The Union allows you to regroup the result of multiple activities into a single target.
- The Intersection allows you to keep only the elements common to the different inbound populations in the activity.
- The Exclusion allows you to exclude elements from one population according to certain criteria.
Configure the Combine activity combine-configuration
Follow these common steps to start configuring the Combine activity:
- Add multiple activities such as Build audience activities to form at least two different execution branches.
- Add a Combine activity to any of the previous branches.
- Select the segmentation type: union, intersection or exclusion.
- Click Continue.
- In the Sets to join section, check all the previous activities you wish you join.
Union combine-union
In the Combine activity, you can configure a Union. For this, you need to select the Reconciliation type to define how duplicates are handled:
- Keys only: this is the default mode. The activity only keeps one element when elements from the different inbound transitions have the same key. This option can only be used if the inbound populations are homogeneous.
- A selection of columns: select this option to define the list of columns on which the data reconciliation is applied. You must first select the primary set (that which contains the source data), then the columns to use for the join.
Intersection combine-intersection
In the Combine activity, you can configure an Intersection. For this, you need to follow the extra steps below:
- Select the Reconciliation type to define how duplicates are handled. See the Union section.
- You can check the Generate completement option if you wish to process the remaining population. The complement will contain the union of the results of all inbound activities minus the intersection. An additional outbound transition will then be added to the activity.
Exclusion combine-exclusion
In the Combine activity, you can configure an Exclusion. For this, you need to follow the extra steps below:
- In the Sets to join section, select the Primary set from the inbound transitions. This is the set from which elements are excluded. The other sets match elements before being excluded from the primary set.
- When necessary, you can manipulate inbound tables. Indeed, to exclude a target from another dimension, this target has to be returned to the same targeting dimension as the main target. To do this, click Add a rule in the Exclusion rules section and specify the dimension change conditions. Data reconciliation is carried out either via an attribute or a join.
- You can check the Generate completement option if you wish to process the remaining population. See the Intersection section.
Examples combine-examples
In the following example, we are using a Combine activity and we add a union to retrieves all the profiles of the two queries: persons between 18 and 27 years old and persons between 34 and 40 years old.
The following example shows the intersection between two query activities. It is being used here to retrieve profiles who are between 18 to 27 years old and whose email address has been provided.
The following exclusion example shows two queries configured to filter profiles who are between 18 and 27 years old and have an Adobe email domain. The profiles with an Adobe email domain are then excluded from the first set.
