Like Functions

[psugrads]

I have a table that has over 26,000 records. I need to group Company Names that are similar. But need to review before they are grouped.

I would like to be able to setup a query to look for and identify similar Company Names. Return an identifier in a column beside the like Company Name field that flags the Like Names as "Like" and leaves the others blank.

Is this possible and how would I do this?

 

[Russell Hauf]

Hmm. Similar is hard. But if they all start the same, you can just use

Like "ABC Compan*"

in your query criteria.

Hope you find what you need,

Russell

 

[Anne Troy]

You can also use:

Like "*ABC*" too.

 

[Corticus]

Indeed, 'similar' is tricky. If you can specify how you define similar, you can use wildcards as stated above if you know certain letter will be together.
If you don't, I was thinking put some expressions as new fields in your query, and have these expressions look at various text elements to help you find similar records, such as left(NameofInterest,5) and you could just check the left 5 letters, or len(NameofInterest) to check length. I don't know, I'm just rambling, but 'fuzzy' searches are tricky. The ability to do a 'fuzzy' search can make or break a search engine!

HTH,

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This message was edited by Corticus on 2002-11-26 10:08

 

[John in PA]

Sounds to me that you have different entries for the same entity which is caused by varying abbreviations. Like Company, Co, Co. all meaning the same thing but when included in a report gives you different results. If this is the situation the way I would correct it would be to create a query including only the affected field and click "Totals" symbol to display all the unique combinations of the field. With all the variations you can choose which one to make the standard for each entity. Then make a drop down list to eliminate this problem. Been There!
This message was edited by John in PA on 2002-11-30 12:49