Is Fuzzy Matching possible in SQL?

sqlor · February 10, 2021, 10:48am

Hello

PowerBI has a very straightforward Fuzzy Matching function but it is unfortunately extremely slow.

Is there anything like this in SQL?

I found SOUNDEX() but I do not think it is a Fuzzy Matching, it looks like a phonetic matching which is different.

Example of fuzzy matching:
Door matches with Dor (because 75% of the characters are the same)
Example of phoentic matching:
Door matches with Ntor (because they sound similar despite 50% of the characters being the same)

Any idea?

Thanks

harishgg1 · February 10, 2021, 11:40am

sqlor · February 10, 2021, 12:50pm

Thanks, I take that as a 'no'.

yosiasz · February 10, 2021, 2:11pm

so odor is a 100% match to door? or are you saying comparing them slot wise
slot 1, slot 2, slot 3?

mike01 · February 10, 2021, 2:19pm

there's a reason why the fuzzy matching in PowerBi is extremely slow. The only thing I've seen that works is using full text indexing

yosiasz · February 10, 2021, 2:19pm

what is the intended application of this fuzzy matching. SQL Server might not be your target technology to that

sqlor · February 10, 2021, 6:42pm

Odor is not a match to door because in PowerBI you can specify if you want to change the order of the characters in your fuzzy matching or not.

yosiasz · February 10, 2021, 6:46pm

we are not talking about PowerBi, we are talking about SQL Server. What are you attempting to do? You requirements are often very vague and you object to many answers given. If your requirements are not clear then you will get a lot of responses you will not like.