Fuzzy Lookup problems

Hi everyone,

Ive just started looking at the Fuzzy Lookup feature and i think i must be getting something fundamentally wrong. I have two tables - each contain different meta data representations for a set of potentially similar documents. The only chance i have of matching a document in table A to a document in table B is a common title field. However, manual input means that the titles may differ in both tables although they are potentially quite similar in most cases.

In the lookup i get to specify the output columns from table B (Reference) which is fine, but i don't seem to get to choose the columns from table A that i would also like to see. So my output shows me all the documents from table B that it thinks are similar to ones in table A...but not identifying which record it's similar to.

I initially thought that the "pass through" columns that i identified would appear in the output - but this does not seem to be the case.

I must be using it incorrectly, but i have no idea how to progress with this apart from creating a new source table (C) which is a full outer join of table A and B - and then also using table C as the reference table, but that seems madness.

any help would be appreciated - ta

Andrew

I may have spoken too soon.

It's strange, but if i've been using the 'Advanced Edit' dialog to setup the lookup - which i had assumed contained the same functionality (plus more) as the 'Edit' dialog. It looks like i was wrong. If i setup the Lookup through the Edit page, I can specify the Pass Through columns (which it doesn't look like you can do from inside the Advanced Edit box). Then once i have finished the basic edit i can go in and perform any additional advanced editings.

I suppose it kind of makes sense - my intial attempts at setting Pass Throughs must have been flawed in some other way :)

Hope this helps someone else!

Andrew :)

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Perhaps have a look at: http://msdn.microsoft.com/sql/bi/integration/default.aspx?pull=/library/en-us/dnsql90/html/datasol.asp

Although primarily about Master Data Management (MDM) it also covers some of the interesting Fuzzy techniques that can be used with SSIS.

Donald

Functions?

WIthin SQL Server 2005, there are functions. This feature is new to me and I haven't found anyone that has written their own fucntions? I'm wondering if functions are written the same as stored procedures, and can a function be called from a stored procedure or even from within a query.

Yes SQL functions are pretty much like your VB or any other functions. They take one/more parameters return one value. You could also return a table from a function. You can call the function from a Query or even inside a stored procedure. You can read up Books On Line for more info. There are some built in functions too.|||

Functions are not new to SQL Server 2005, they were introduced in SQL Server 2000. Try the link below for answers about most known UDF. The site is run by a UDF expert. Hope this helps.

http://www.novicksoftware.com/UDFofWeek/UDF_FAQ.htm