# Equivalence

A similarity threshold that IDOL Category Component uses to determine whether to continue trying to merge similar clusters after meeting the minimum clustering requirements of NumClusters and BindLevel. In this case, after IDOL Category Component creates the first set of clusters, it merges any clusters that are more similar than the specified threshold.

Set `Equivalence` to a value in the range `1` to `20`, where a higher value means that clusters must be more similar to each other for merging to continue.

Set `Equivalence` to `-1` to use an internal default for merging clusters.

Set `Equivalence` to `0` if you do not want to continue to merge clusters.

Type: | Long
Default: | -1
Required: | No
Configuration Section: | Cluster
Example: | `Equivalence=5`
See Also: | BindLevel NumClusters

_FT_HTML5_bannerTitle.htm