Name Matching, with inaccuracy

[Guyanthalas]

I have a feeling that something like this has already been asked, and I'm just not finding the correct keywords to search. Regular Expression and Character Matching are too verbose and not yielding results. :-/

Summary:

I have a giant file with thousands of people's names and email addresses. I have to compare that to a similar list from last years results. The big problem is that we allow people to dupe Email addresses (Ex: ParisiFamily@hotmail.com might be used for five different people), thus email address matching is not 100% accurate. So I thought up Email Address, coupled with name matching.

Basically I'll compare the email address to an array with other emails, if the match is go, then it will start to compare the full name of the individual. If that matches, it is considered to be a successful match.

The problem:

Names change too. Not by much, but consider Robert Smith may now go by Bob Smith. Or Elizabeth is now Beth. So now my real question comes into play:

Is there a way I can use built in inaccurace when comparing the strings? I figure if I compare the new string

Liz Johnson

with the old String

Elizabeth Johnson

and I get XX% (thinking 50-75, open for input) of the characters matching, I'll consider that enough to call it a successful hit.

Does that sound do-able? Is there an easy function to work with this, or am I basically looping regular expressions?

Thanks for any help!

[JohnOne]

Here is a link you may find interesting.

Apparently it is not easy.

Anyway, here's a little script I made for fun to get the ball rolling for you.

$longname = StringLower(InputBox("full name","Enter long name"))

$shortname = StringLower(InputBox("short name","Enter short name"))

MsgBox(0,"Result",_IsShortFor($longname,$shortname) & " %")


Func _IsShortFor($L , $S)
    If StringInStr($L,$S) Then
        Return 99
    EndIf
    If StringLen($S) >= 3 And StringInStr($L,StringLeft($S,3)) Then
        Return 99
    EndIf

    Local $result
    $iCount = 0
    $Slen = StringLen($S)
    $aS = StringSplit($S,"",3)
    For $i = 0 To UBound($aS) -1
        $ipos = StringInStr($L,$aS[$i])
        If $ipos Then
            $L = StringReplace($L,$aS[$i],"")
            $iCount +=1
        EndIf
    Next
    $result =  Ceiling(($iCount/$Slen) * 100) -1
    Return $result
EndFunc

EDIT:

oops

Edited July 8, 2011 by JohnOne

[jchd]

You should try material in those posts: