Approximate string matching

About: Approximate string matching is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 1903 publications have been published within this topic receiving 62352 citations. The topic is also known as: fuzzy string-searching algorithm & fuzzy string-matching algorithm.

Approximate String Matching over Ziv-Lempel Compressed Text

Abstract: We present a solution to the problem of performing approximate pattern matching on compressed text. The format we choose is the Ziv-Lempel family, specifically the LZ78 and LZW variants. Given a text of length u compressed into length n, and a pattern of length m, we report all the R occurrences of the pattern in the text allowing up to k insertions, deletions and substitutions, in O(mkn+R) time. The existence problem needs O(mkn) time. We also show that the algorithm can be adapted to run in O(k2n+min(mkn,m2(mσ)k) + R) average time, where σ is the alphabet size. The experimental results show a speedup over the basic approach for moderate m and small k.

Systems and methods for validating an address

Abstract: Systems, methods, and software determine whether a field of an input digital representation of information, such as the street name field in an address, is correct by quickly comparing the field to a list of valid choices for that field. The list of valid choices is generated based on information from the input digital representation, such as a character string. If an exact match is not found, a fuzzy match comparison determines the most closely matching valid choice. If a suitable fuzzy match is not found, then the input information is invalid. Otherwise, another field of the input information, such as the building number field of an address, is tested for validity. If the second field passes the validity check, then the fuzzy match (or exact match) for the field is valid. A fuzzy matching field may replace the input field, thereby correcting the input information.

Adaptively weighted, partitioned context edit distance string matching

Abstract: A system and method for examining a string of symbols and identifying portions of the string which match a predetermined pattern using adaptively weighted, partitioned context edit distances. A pattern is partitioned into context and value components, and candidate matches for each of the components is identified by calculating an edit distance between that component and each potentially matching set (sub-string) of symbols within the string. One or more candidate matches having the lowest edit distances are selected as matches for the pattern. The weighting of each of the component matches may be adapted to optimize the pattern matching and, in one embodiment, the context components may be heavily weighted to obtain matches of a value for which the corresponding pattern is not well defined. In one embodiment, an edit distance matrix is evaluated for each of a prefix component, a value component and a suffix component of a pattern. The evaluation of the prefix matrix provides a basis for identifying indicators of the beginning of a value window, while the evaluation of the suffix matrix provides a basis for identifying the alignment of the end of the value window. The value within the value window can then be evaluated via the value matrix to determine a corresponding value match score.