Fuzzy (Approximate) String Matching — match

Wraps stringdist::amatch() to perform "fuzzy" (approximate) string matching while providing more informative output. Instead of an integer vector of best match positions, this function returns a tibble with the input, its corresponding best match, and the approximate string distance.

Usage

match_fz(x, table, method = "lcs", maxDist = 115, ...)

Arguments

x: elements to be approximately matched: will be coerced to character unless it is a list consisting of integer vectors.
table: lookup table for matching. Will be coerced to character unless it is a list consting of integer vectors.
method: Matching algorithm to use. See stringdist-metrics.
maxDist: Elements in x will not be matched with elements of table if their distance is larger than maxDist. Note that the maximum distance between strings depends on the method: it should always be specified.
...: arguments passed on to stringdist::amatch()

Value

A tibble with 3 columns:

x
table_match: the closest match of x
dist: the distance between x and its closest match (given the method selected

NOTES

Fuzzy string matching is SLOW. Expect this function to take >1 min for comparisons of more than 500 values for all methods.

For comparison of citation titles specifically, the "lcs" method is faster than "osa" and seems to work better. Based on light experimentation, a good setting for maxDist value for citation titles is between 80-115.