Confused about the output of fuzzy matching tool

[pacisr]

I'm fairly new to Alteryx and I'm a little confused about the output of fuzzy matching. For example this sample data:

ID	SOURCE	COL_TO_MATCH
1	A	a@a.com
2	A	c@c.com
3	B	a@a.com
4	B	c@c.com

I am getting results similar to this:

ID	ID2
1	3
4	2

So it's really hard for me to know which is the actual 'source' of the ID. I was expecting all source 'A' to be in one column and all source 'B' to be in another. Do you guys have any advice on how I can keep all matches from one source on one column? Thank you!

[ChrisTX · Accepted solution]

Watch this video: 

Fuzzy Matching for Beginners

https://community.alteryx.com/t5/Videos/Fuzzy-Matching-for-Beginners/td-p/330575

It explains how you need to use the Unique tool right after the Fuzzy Match tool, and how to use two Join tools to join back to your original data.

It looks like the video training index is messed up again, and doesn't list all of the older training videos: 

https://community.alteryx.com/t5/Videos/Video-Training-Index/td-p/45161

And searching videos for "Fuzzy" only returns one result, which isn't a video about Fuzzy Matching.

Hoping the Community team is able to restore access to all of the older training videos, and fix the Index.

Chris

[MarqueeCrew]

@pacisr ,

Here are some suggestions:

1. Don't fuzzy match on email address.

2. If you're going to fuzzy match on email address, first parse it into the components (e.g.  mark | alteryx | com).

3. If you're going to fuzzy match on email address, do #2 plus add additional fields for matching (e.g. ZIP Code, Phone, etcetera).

4.If you're going to fuzzy match on email address, try cleaning it up first:

4.a identify those that don't have proper format

4.b look for errors in domain or extension and update them

This list isn't meant to be exhaustive.  It is just a start.

Cheers,

Mark

[pacisr]

Thank you. I will look at it.

[pacisr]

Thank you. Actually, I'm trying to create a workflow that will be the basis of a macro where I can take a column input and use that to determine the settings for the fuzzy match. The email was just an illustration which probably wasn't best. 😀