Cross-reference lookups

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Introduction

Cross-reference lookups are used for cases where sets of static values are commonly known by another value. For example:

Weight measurements

Term	Also known as...
Kilogram	Kg
Gram	g
Cup	c

Months of the year

Term	Also known as...
January	Jan
February	Feb
March	Mar

If you have source data which includes values that always need to be changed to an alternative term, a cross-reference lookup can be used to transform required data fields.

For example, you might have an incoming payload which has a 'renewal month' field with values in the form 'January', 'February', 'March', etc. but also have a target connection which only accepts months in abbreviated form - 'Jan', 'Feb', 'Mar', etc.

In this scenario, you could add 12 replace transformation functions for any field that needs this conversion - but a more efficient approach is to add one map transformation function (associated with the appropriate cross-reference lookup) to required fields.

Patchworks provides a range of cross-reference lookups which you can install and use, or you can add your own.

In this section

• Accessing cross-reference lookups
• Installing cross-reference lookups
• Adding a cross-reference lookup
• Importing & exporting cross-reference lookups
• Using a cross-reference lookup in field transformations

If required, cross-reference lookups can also be updated via the Patchworks API. For more information please see our Cross-reference lookup API section.