Matching rules determine how clients and servers compare attribute values during LDAP requests or operations. They are also used in evaluating search filter elements including distinguished names and attributes. Matching rules are defined for each attribute based on EQUALITY (e.g., two attributes are equal based on case, exact match, etc.), SUBSTR (e.g., assertion value is a substring of an attribute), and ORDERING (e.g., greater than or equal, less than or equal, etc.) properties.
Note: The PingDirectory Server supports an APPROXIMATE matching rule that compares similar attributes based on fuzzy logic. Thus, attributes that are similar or "sound-like" each other are matched. For example, "petersen" would match "peterson".