"Fuzzy" Query

[Guest]

Hi, I have two large tables that need to be combined, Original and 01_16.
The two fields in question are Original.Company.Name and 01_16.BusinessName.
01_16 has the data that needs to be added to the records in Original where
the above tweo fields are the same. The problem is that only 7 records in
both table shave the exact same name. 01_16 has the same companies but
whoever created the table gave the companies slightly different names when he
should not have done so. Is it possible to create a query using the
original.CompanyName field with a criteria of like *[01_16].[BusinessName]*
?? I hope I am getting across what I need. I want the query to bring back,
as an example, from the table Original a company named Target Corporation but
I want the data from 01_16 to come back if there is a Business named Target
Stores or Joe's Target House. Thanks.

Win XP Professional, office 2003

 

[John Spencer (MVP)]

There is nothing built in that would do this.

You would need some fairly complex code to even try.

IF you have a limited number of CompanyName and BusinessNames then you could
create a linking table with the equivalents and use that in a join.

TblMatches
OriginalName
MatchName

 

[Linda Burnside]

You might have some other piece of data which would be more consistant. Do
both tables contain phone numbers?

Linda