[R] Tuning string matching

[bogdan romocea]

This is a rather complex problem. I'm not aware of an R function /
package that can do something like this, but in case you need to build
it from scratch read
http://support.sas.com/documentation/periodicals/obs/obswww15/index.html
If you're familiar with SAS you could translate the code to R.

HTH,
b.


-----Original Message-----
From: adi at roda.ro
Sent: Wednesday, January 05, 2005 12:36 PM
To: r-help at stat.math.ethz.ch
Subject: [R] Tuning string matching


Dear list,

I spent about two hours searching on the message archive, with no
avail.
I have a list of people that have to pass an on-line test, but only a
fraction
of them do it. Moreover, as they input their names, the resulting
string do not
always match the names I have in my database.

I would like to do two things:

1. Match any strings that are 90% the same
Example:
name1 <- "Harry Harrington"
name2 <- "Harry Harington"
I need a function that would declare those strings as a match (ideally
having an
argument that would allow introducing 80% instead of 90%)

2. Arrange a final table that would take me from:

Table1 (the complete list of people from my database)
No Name
1  Byron C. Andrew
2  Friedman Bob
3  Harrington Harry

Table2 (the people having been tested)
No Name               Score
1  Harry Harington    13
2  Byron Andrew       28

to:

No Name1              Name2              Score
1  Byron C. Andrew    Byron Andrew       28
2  Friedman Bob
3  Harrington Harry   Harry Harington    13

Thank you in advance, any help is highly appreciated.
Adrian

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