Fuzzy Matching: Matching Inconsistent Phone Numbers in Power Query

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Excel Putting it All Together:

This video digs into the new Fuzzy Match options in Power Query. In a previous video we looked at names. Here, we look at phone numbers and how Fuzzy Matching attempts to match inconsistent phone numbers. Example:

1 (717) 338-2741
717-388-2741
717.388.2741
7173882741

These are all legitimate variations on the same phone number. Without fuzzy matching in Excel or Power Query, to match these we'd have to clean them up and get them consistent before attempting a merge, join or match.

Power Query's fuzzy matching does a good job but it takes some fiddling with the threshold percentage. But there's a warning! Fuzzy matching is based on percentages and likelihood. It can get a lot right and it can get a lot wrong. BE CAREFUL!

#LeftOuterJoin
#FuzzyMatching
#FuzzyMerges

For an intro to Get & Transform (Power Query) try my Lynda/LinkedIn course:

My book: Guerrilla Data Analysis 2nd Edition

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Welcome back Oz, hope you are well! Thanks for the fuzzy trick and I hope to see more video :).

wesszep
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Welcome back Oz and thank you for sharing some info about your trip.
I enjoyed this video (as always)

Officeinstructor
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Another great video man! On the topic of trying to match up lists that don't really match up, you should do a video on Wildcard Characters. I just discovered them recently and it blows my mind at how much headache they could have saved me if I had known about them previously.

Gogloplex
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I think we need to come up with a way of checking for those mismatches and prevent those embarrassing auto corrects!

UpExcel
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fuzzy matching...cool! Thanks for the video!

DougHExcel
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Looks like there's more harm than good with the fuzzy match. I don't think I feel comfortable doing this, considering there's a high risk of error.

But this is good. Thanks for sharing, Oz.

alexkim
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Hi Oz.. fuzzy match.. amazing what it is attempting to solve.. but seems a little iffy. On the other hand, probably still better than doing it manually in some situations.. right? Welcome back. Thumbs up!

wayneedmondson
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Just call all the people on the list to confirm their address 😂

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