The BUSNAME routine compares two business names, assuming the fields are left-justified and blank-filled. The routine also assumes that a word is any group of characters followed by a blank. This routine can successfully match:
- An acronym against a list of words. See BUSNAME With Modifier (ACRONYM).
- One word against a group of single-character words.
The default order of operations for scoring for the BUSNAME routine is as follows:
- Test for blank fields. If either field is blank and the routine modifier is not COMPACT, return a score of 50.
- Test for an exact match of the non-modified input fields. For an exact match return a score of 100.
- Apply any of the following routine modifiers in the listed order:
- ALPHANUM
- NOCASE
- DECOMP
- DI
- SORT - returns at the end of SORT processing a score of 0, 95.
- COMPACT - returns at the end of COMPACT processing a score of 0,75,85,90.
- ACRONYM - sets the maximum return score to be 99 before applying the business name match algorithm.
- Apply the BUSNAME routine logic below.
|
Score |
Description |
|---|---|
|
100 |
Exact match, excluding blank versus blank. |
| 50 |
One or both fields are blank. |
|
The following logic is applied to narrow the match. With this logic, values are deducted from ‘100’. |
|
|
Deduct from 100 |
Reason for deduction |
|
– 1 |
For each extra word, if there were no other errors. |
|
– 3 |
For each extra word, if there were any word or letter errors. |
|
– 3 |
For each inserted word (also count one word error). |
|
– 4 |
For each word transposition (also count one word error). |
|
– 15 |
For extra words, if the only matches were single letter exact substrings and there were less than three such matches. |
|
If two words are not equal and the preceding rules for word errors do not apply, the words are compared letter for letter, and the following deductions are taken. |
|
|
– 1 |
For each doubled letter (also count one letter error). |
|
– 2 |
For each transposed letter (also count one letter error). |
|
– 2 |
For each inserted letter (also count one letter error). |
|
– 2 |
For each mismatch (also count one letter error). |
|
– 2 |
For any extra characters if one word is longer than the other (also count letter errors). |
|
– 10 |
If the number of word errors is more than one third the greater number of words in both fields. |
|
– 10 |
If the number of errors is more than 25%, the greater number of characters in both fields. |
|
– 25 |
If the number of word errors is greater than 50% of the smaller number of words in both fields. |
|
– 25 |
If the number of character errors is greater than 50% of the smaller number of characters in both fields. |
Examples
"IBM" vs "ibm" with NOCASE = 100
"I BM" vs "I-BM" with ALPHANUM = 100