I want to write a script to automatically merge name and address data from one database table into another.

I'd like my script to know that these:

are very likely the same address, and

are likely the same name, and automatically merge 

+-----------------------+------------------------+
| Dr. Alan Balfour,     | 123 North Main, Apt. D |
| A. Balfour, MD, FACPS | 123 N. Main #D         |
+-----------------------+------------------------+

[download]

into a single record, especially when both records hold other information that's very similar.

I can think of 3 different approaches:

  1. use Baye's Theorem (kind of like SpamAssassin)
  2. Fuzzy Logic
  3. Homebrew Heuristics

Personally, I think that the Bayes approach would probably serve best, but I'm looking for all the clue I can get before I start serious hacking on this.

In reply to Merge/Purge address data by cleverett

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