Entity resolution: Viewing Results and explanations

Once the Entity Resolution process has completed successfully, the graph is enriched with new nodes and relationships representing resolved entities and their connexion to original records.

Users who have access to visualizations of data-sources where Entity Resolution has been performed can explore these results directly in visualizations, and ask for Explanations about records and entities linkage.

Understanding results in the graph

As soon as ER finishes, your graph will contain:

New node-categories for resolved entities

• ResolvedPersonEntity
• ResolvedOrganizationEntity

These represent deduplicated entities created by the Entity Resolution process, based on your initial records and mappings. They are automatically named by the Entity Resolution process, according to the most relevant name found based on records matching.

They don't contain all properties from the records they are linked to, but you can inspect all records resolved by this entity manually by clicking on the Entity Resolution tab.

ℹ️ These node categories cannot be modified or deleted. They are read-only system entities generated by Entity Resolution.

New edge-types for hidden relationships

• RESOLVED: between a record and the resolved entity it belongs to, identifies obvious duplicates in your data
• POSSIBLY_SAME: between entities that may be duplicates
• POSSIBLY_RELATED: between entities that are likely related

The MATCH_KEY property gives you a quick hint about which attributes were selected to set the relationship type.

You can also ask for more detailed explanations by asking WHY on records and entities. See "WHY" and "WHY NOT" Explanations section.

"WHY" and "WHY NOT" explanations

To better understand why records resolved to entities or why entities didn’t match, you can ask for explanations directly from the visualization.

Accessing "WHY" explanations

There are two ways to see why records have been resolved into the same entity:

• Option 1: Select a Resolved Entity Node
  • A new tab appears in the selection panel: Entity Resolution
  • Click the tab to open three expandable sections listing:
    • Matched Records
    • Possible Matches
    • Possible Relationships
• Option 2: Right-click a Resolved Entity Node
  • Choose "Entity Resolution Explanation" from the context menu
  • The same Entity Resolution tab opens automatically

Explanation tab

• For each section (Matched, Possible Match, Possibly Related), results are grouped by node category
• Each table includes:
  • A first column with a clickable 👁️ icon labeled:
    • "WHY?" (for matched records)
    • "WHY NOT?" (for possible match / possible relationship)
  • The list of properties for each relates records and entities

💡 If a resolved entity has only one linked record, the "WHY?" option is not shown (no explanation needed).

"WHY?" or "WHY NOT?" explanations

Clicking the eye (👁) icon opens a popup with:

• Information about the names and IDs of records and entities compared
• A reminder of the relationship type (only when comparing two entities, POSSIBLE MATCH or POSSIBLE RELATIONSHIP)
• The MATCHKEY that shows what properties contributed to the match (e.g., +NAME+DOB)
• A scrollable table with Property Key, Value and Match Score
  • Properties used in the match key are visually highlighted
  • Full details of all mapped attributes are included, even if not matched
  • Only the highest match score between values is shown for each attribute
• Click the CLOSE button at the bottom right or use the ❌ icon in the top corner.

Example of WHY a record matched an Entity

Example of WHY two entities did NOT resolve together (possible relationship)

Notes on explanation behavior

• Explanations are available even if the resolved entity is not expanded
• They are not available when multiple nodes are selected

🛠️ All explanations rely on data from the Senzing engine. If Entity Resolution is disabled or results are cleared, explanations are no longer available.