checking for duplicates

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Ted Metro - 03 Apr 2007 17:36 GMT

I have a large customer list, and want to check for duplicate records that
might be slightly misspelled.

First I will use a formula that will check the first 8 or 10 characters of a
customer name and look for a match in the list.

Is there a formula that will look at a customer name and see if there is any
other customer that has 80% or 90% of the same letters.

I want to try to catch things like --

'The A One Bank' and 'A One Bank' - recognizing as the same customer

but also catch with the same formula

'The A One Bank' and 'A-One Bank Inc'

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Dave F - 03 Apr 2007 17:42 GMT

=IF(ISNUMBER(MATCH(LEFT(A1,8),B1:B100,0)),"MATCH","") will compare the first
8 characters in B1 to the values in B1:B100 and return "match" if a match is
found or else will return nothing if no match is found.

You may also want to play around with the FIND function to get something
more approximate. See here for a discussion:
http://articles.techrepublic.com.com/5100-1035_11-1033368.html

Dave

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> I have a large customer list, and want to check for duplicate records that
> might be slightly misspelled.
[quoted text clipped - 12 lines]
>
> 'The A One Bank' and 'A-One Bank Inc'

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