Matching K(S)SS(S)tem* [3]: the inexact science

Eric A. Sohn,CAMS (eric.sohn@dowjones.com),global market strategist and product director, Dow Jones Risk & Compliance,New York, NY, USA.

Up until now, writes Eric Sohn ofDow Jones, this series of articles [1] has focused on higher-level elements oftext matching, including matching words to equivalent words, and dealing withmissing data, extraneous data and data in an unexpected order. The last pieceof the puzzle to be fitted into the larger whole is the generalized science ofinexact matching. In general, these fall into the broad categories of fuzzymatching (e.g. based on edit distance algorithms) and phonetic matching. Eachhas their own unique series of design choices. [*Keep (Sanctions) Screening Simple (Stupid)]