The Data Matching Process

Abstract

This chapter provides an overview of the data matching process, and describes the five major steps involved in this process: data pre-processing (cleaning and standardisation), indexing, comparisons, record pair classification, and evaluation (of matching quality and of the complexity of the matching process). An example of two small database tables that contain name, address, and date of birth values is used to illustrate the tasks and challenges involved in each step of the data matching process. Part II of the book will then cover each of these five steps in more detail.