Find the same product in two tables

Compare item_code and observed prices between Product Information and Competitor Price Data.

Question for this chapter

How can you prove that an inventory row and a competitor-price observation refer to the same product?

Why this matters now

Branch inventory and competitor prices have different row counts and observation units. Without checking the key first, a price from another product could be applied without an obvious warning.

Try it

Open Product Information in Retail Inventory Analysis, then select Schema. Find item_code, branch_name, inventory_qty, selling_price_krw_synth, competitor_price_krw_synth, and stockout_risk_flag_synth.

Schema tab of the Product Information dataset — Inspect the product key, branch, inventory, selling price, competitor price, and stockout-risk columns.

In Data, find a row with item_code = 7224000894. Then open Competitor Price Data and inspect the same item_code and its price_krw.

Product and branch inventory rows in Product Information — The same product repeats across branches and work rows in Product Information.

Product-level price observations in Competitor Price Data — Find the same item_code and price_krw in the competitor observation.

Success looks like this

Table	Rows	Shared product key	Different observation unit
Product Information	46,700	`item_code`	Product × branch × work row
Competitor Price Data	56	`item_code`	Competitor-price observation per product

item_code connects the tables. branch_code exists in both, but the current pipeline intentionally uses the product key rather than branch.

Interpret the result

7224000894 identifies Innisfree_No-Sebum_Mineral_Powder. The first Product Information example has a competitor price of KRW 4,500; the current observation changes it to KRW 4,670. Selling price KRW 4,490 and inventory 51 stay unchanged.

Next decision

The tables can be connected safely. Next, run the pipeline and verify that only the competitor-price field changes in the same row.