Data Matching Software

[LiverpoolRed]

Hi,

Does anyone know of a good data matching solution to allow me to identifiy duplicates across 2 spreadsheets (based on company name). I need sometihng that can do more than just your standard exact match (which I can do in MS Access), I need something that has an element of fuzzy / phonetic matching, where you can set the percentage threshold.

Freeware would be nice but would also be willing to pay for something that really does the job.

Thanks in advance for any help.

 

[lewisbassett]

LiverpoolRed,

Regular expression (where a string is matched to some wildcards) is your best bet.

I have sent you a PM.

 

[B2B Sales]

This sounds interesting, I would like to know more about free software solutions or at least not an expensive one. Can you let me know if you come up with something ?

 

[lewisbassett]

In MS Access and Excel, one can write custom functions using VBA.

In Excel, where you would use say:

SUM(A2:A10)

you could use a custom function:

FuzzyMatching("a string", "my strong")

which would return a value on how well the strings match.

If you know VBA, you can write it yourself. If you don't, I can offer bespoke VBA functions that you can use as part of your own projects.

 

[collierb]

I think you can search through online free data matching software.

 

[Match2Lists]

LiverpoolRed,

lewisbassett is correct in that you could use Regular Expressions and Wild cards in MS Access
and Excel to do what you want.

However this would not take in to account anagrams and synonyms of the company names you
are trying to match - resulting in missed matches and poor quality results.

Fuzzy/phonetic matching can only get you so far. It is the addition of the "Business Logic" in
dedicated matching tools that enables you to get the best matches possible.

Plus you don't have to learn all the complexity of regular expressions and wild cards
- the tools do it all for you!

Check out Match2Lists.com its an easy to use online data matching tool.

There's no software to install, you just upload your lists and you can be matching in minutes.

 

[sohel khan]

You can try dataladder this is online free software it may help you.