Algorithm

[Guest]

I have two tables in a database. One that contains the official names for
countries, provinces and towns, and another that has specific site data keyed
on town names.

The problem is that the second table town names are often not spelled
correctly and obviously do not match the official names. I would like to
write a code module in VBA that would select a town name and then search the
official name table for the best match and add that offical name to a blank
field so that I can review the results befor commiting a change.

Is there an algorithm that would get me the best match?

Thanks,

Larry

 

[Lynn Trapp]

That probably depends entirely on what you mean by "best match." The closest
possibility that I can think of, off the top of my head, is the LIKE
operator for SQL, but you would have to be very creative about how you used
it.

--
Lynn Trapp
MS Access MVP
www.ltcomputerdesigns.com
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[PC Datasheet]

Google for the Soundex algorithm and see if that will work for you.

 

[John Nurick]

Google for the Soundex algorithm and see if that will work for you.

.... and if that's not precise enough, look for "Levenshtein distance"
instead.