AO Match Test

Field

If Entry method is Field, the input field. Default: Blank.

Value 1
Value 2

If Entry method is Manual, the two strings to be tested. Default: Blank.

Comparison kind

Specifies the field comparison method. Options are:

• Positional: Compares each character position within the two records.

• Edit Distance: Compares the fields of the two records using an algorithm that counts how many "mistakes" were made to transform one field value into the other.

• Word-by-Word: Compares the fields of two records by splitting the text of each field into words (punctuation and spaces are dropped) and then comparing the words one at a time. This method is often used for business-name comparison where word order is not as important.

Default: Word-by-word.

Match initials

If selected, enables Initials match option. Default: No.

Initials

Recover match points if Initial matches a name (for example, J Robin Smith Inc versus Jonathon Robert Smith, Inc). Default: Treat as Similar (75).

Match acronym

If selected, enables Acronyms match option. Default: No.

Acronyms

Assign acronym matches a specific score for their part of the match (for example, International Machine Parts versus IMP). Default: Treat as Similar (75).

Match abbreviations

If selected, enables Abbreviations match option. Default: No.

Abbreviations

Recover match points due to an abbreviation identified by pattern rather than known value (for example, Halbert Construction Contractors versus Hlbrt Construction Contractors). Default: Treat as Similar (75).

Missing words

Recover match points due to missing or disjoint words (for example, Halston Construction Contractors versus Halston Contractors). Default: Treat as Similar (75).

Word match threshold

Set minimum similarity threshold to consider any pair of words "the same." Default (61).

Match nicknames

Allows for personal names in a firm to be standardized. For example, in Liz Smith Enterprises versus Elizabeth Smith Enterprises, Liz and Elizabeth would be treated as identical. Default: No.

Ethnic nickname match

If selected, matches less common, but valid nicknames (such as Sean/John). Unwanted nicknames can be removed by adding a "remove" entry to the Name alias table. Default: No.

Match firm alias words

Matches firm names with known company aliases. Default: Enabled.

Ignore firm noise words

Treat common Firm words in the matching process as (Incorporated, Inc, Company) as "noise" . Default: Enabled.

Numeric threshold

If selected, lets you specify a secondary match threshold (Numeric Minimum Score) for the digits contained in the match values. A second match is performed on the digits of both values using an edit distance algorithm. The numeric score is computed by extracting all the digits, and applying the following rules:

• If both digit sets are blank, it is a match.

• If only one digit set is blank, it is a non-match.

• If both digit sets are non-blank, they are compared using Edit Distance Qwerty rules.

If this match fails to meet the threshold, the entire match fails. Use this if your field contains both digits and non-digits, but the digits are more critical to the match. Default: No.

Minimum Score

Numeric secondary match threshold, as described above. Default: Exact (100).

Name alias table

Path and name of optional DLD table used to augment or override the alias values defined within the macro. The table must be of the form:

ALIAS

STANDARD

REMOVE

Peg

Margaret

FALSE

Margie

Margaret

Jon

John

TRUE

where ALIAS and STANDARD are Text fields and REMOVE is Boolean. In the example above, Peg and Margie are defined as new aliases for Margaret (a blank REMOVE field is treated as FALSE), while the TRUE value in the REMOVE field explicitly suppresses Jon as an alias for John. Default: Blank.

Business alias table

Path and name of optional DLD table used to augment or override the alias values defined within the macro. The table must be of the form:

ALIAS

STANDARD

REMOVE

Paving

Asphalt

FALSE

Hotmix

Asphalt

Reproduction

Copying

Copying

where ALIAS and STANDARD are Text fields and REMOVE is Boolean. In the example above, Paving and Hotmix are defined as new aliases for Asphalt (a blank REMOVE field is treated as FALSE), while the TRUE value in the REMOVE field explicitly suppresses Reproduction as an alias for Copying. Default: Blank.

Business noise table

Path and name of optional DLD table used to add additional "noise" words for Firm matching. The table must be a single-column DLD table of the form:

WORDS

Corporation

Inc

Company

where WORDS is a Text field. The example above shows data that shouldn’t contribute to the match score because it is contextually meaningless. If you are matching financial institutions, word BANK could be a "noise" word. Default: Blank.