I have an external file which contains mailing addresses (City, State, zip, etc ...) and I need a way to join that data with data in a table which contains the same information. Addresses are often misspelled, and this can happen with any aspect be it the state, zip, city, street, etc... I need a way to find the record in the database which most "likely" is the record represented in the datafile. A simple join or Proc Compare would only give exact matches or the mismatches, and that would be too limiting. Is there a process which would find the exact matches and the closest match based on matching variables (e.g. External.Zip - Internal.Zip, External.City_name - Internal.CIty, etc...). Also, any process which allows me to prioritize the variables and provides output on the level of the match (90%, 95%, ...) would be ideal.
... View more