About the Combine Names Options

The Combine Names option applies to constituents who are linked by the spousal relationship types of sp - Spouse, cm - Combine Mail, and lp - Life Partner. For simplicity, we will use the terminology spouse to include all three of these relationship types.

Note: This function does not apply to event reporting. This option is disabled on the Report Details form for event reports.

There are three options available in the handling of spouse name data in reporting:

• Combine if either selected
• Combine if both selected
• Do not combine

The following sections describe each option.

Combine if either selected

The Combine if either selected option is used when you want to use a combined name form, regardless of whether one or both of the constituents in a pair were selected.

With this option activated, the following things occur:

• The system checks to identify constituent spouse pairs where either spouse owns a row of data that "passed" all the selection criteria.
• The spouse whose passing row was encountered first will have the combined form of his and his spouse's (or hers and her spouse's) placed in the export worktable in the Name field and the combined salutation name copied to the Salutation field (assuming all other name options are set to include this data).
• That spouse whose data was encountered first will have a flag (the field, Combine, Y/N) added to the export table for each of his or her rows that are delivered. The flag is a reflection of the kind of name that is being held in the Name and Salutation field.
• The system automatically removes the rows belonging to the second spouse from the export worktable and report (if there were any that passed). There is no protocol for determining which spouse's rows are kept and which are removed.

Note: This behavior can be altered by use of the Option, Report, Spouse Removal option.

Combine if both selected

The Combine if both selected option is used when you want to use the combined name form only if both spouses have rows that passed the selection criteria. If only one spouse is selected, the combined name form is not used for that spouse.

When this option is selected, the following will happen:

• The system checks to identify constituent spouse pairs where both spouses have at least one row of data that has passed all the selection criteria.
• The spouse whose row was encountered first will have the combined form of his Format Name and Salutation Name placed in the export worktable in the Format and Salutation fields (assuming all other name options are set to include this data).
• That spouse whose row was encountered first will have a flag (the field, Combine, Y/N) added to the export worktable for each of his or her rows that are delivered. The flag is a reflection of the kind of name that is being held in the Name and Salutation columns.

Do not combine

The Do not combine option is used when you do not want to use the combined name form in this report. Each spouse that is chosen will have his or her own singular formatted name delivered to the export worktable and report.