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Eduardo_Suela's avatar
2 years ago

Power Query fuzzy matching looks non-deterministic

Hi

 

I have been generating some fuzzy matching queries

The souce is a table of about 6000 names

I have self joined that list with 3 fuzzy fields: sector, subsector, company

Everything was done in excel. I am supposing that both power queries (PBI and Excel) should have the same problem.

 

I have executed it several times.

Each time I get a different result.

I have even filtrered the list to 4 results that I know should match. These 4.

AUTO; CARS; ALFA ROMEO

AUTO; CARS; ALFAROMEO

HOME; HEATING; ARISTON THERMAL

HOME; HEATING; ARISTON

 

Sometimes they match, sometimes they don't.

The fuzzyness shouldn't make the match non-deterministic

Or is there a random heuristic behaviour beneath the surface?

If so there should be a set of seeds to be set up.

 

Any idea?

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