Fuzzy matching
Comparing two pieces of text for similarity instead of exact equality, so that Jon Smith and John Smith count as close.
A fuzzy match is evidence, not proof. Similar strings can be different people, and the same person can have strings that are not similar at all.
Where it comes up
- Name variantsThe same person or organization appears under several spellings, orders, and abbreviations.
- Near-duplicate recordsTwo rows describe the same real thing but differ enough that an exact comparison misses them.
See also
- Entity resolutionDeciding which records refer to the same real-world person, company, or thing, when no shared identifier says so.
- DeduplicationFinding records that describe the same real thing and reducing them to one.