ServiceNow Certified System Administration Practice 2025 – All-In-One Guide to Master Your System Administration Certification!

Coalescing is a crucial process in the data transformation stage within ServiceNow's import set functionality. The primary purpose of coalescing is to identify a unique key for the records being transformed from the import set. This unique key is essential for determining how incoming data should interact with existing records in the target table. For instance, during an import, if a matching record already exists for the unique key, the system can either update that record or ignore the new data, depending on the configurations set by the administrator.

The unique key established through coalescing helps maintain data integrity and ensures that records are not duplicated. It plays a significant role in efficiently managing data in ServiceNow, enabling a streamlined and accurate update process.

In contrast, while it is important to combine import sets and verify data, those actions are not directly associated with the primary function of coalescing. Additionally, mapping of each field is a different pre-transformation activity that does not relate to the core function of establishing unique keys.