Compare Lists with Fuzzy, Phonetic & Numeric Matching

Use the "Substitutions" feature to standardize formats before comparison. For example, add substitution rules to convert "(123) 456-7890" to "1234567890" or "+1-123-456-7890" to "1234567890" to convert data to a consistent formatting.
In addition, you can use Approximate Matching with a threshold of 1-2 for fuzzy matching.

Combine multiple features:
- Use "Trim Whitespace" options (start/end or both)
- Add substitutions for common formatting issues:
“ ” (double space) → “ ” (single space)
“--” → “-” (standardize dashes)

Yes! Use the "Exclusions" feature to specify entire records you want to completely ignore during comparison.

When you upload the same file to both inputs and check the "Approximate Matches" tab with a threshold (1-2), you'll find entries that differ by just a few characters. Review these patterns to identify data entry errors, such as consistent misspellings, extra spaces, or transposed characters.

Remember that numeric tolerance only works on purely numeric entries. For mixed entries containing both numbers and text:
1. Use substitutions to extract just the numeric portion
2. For example, add substitutions like "Price: $" → "" (empty text) to convert "Price: $1234" to "1234"
3. Then set your desired numeric tolerance
This transforms mixed text/numeric entries into purely numeric ones that can use the tolerance feature.

Add currency symbols ($, €, £, ¥) to the "Ignore Symbols" option and allow for slight variations in the numeric tolerance if needed.

For entries like "$5,000 Annual Fee" that contain both numeric and text elements:
1. Use substitutions to standardize formats (e.g., " Annual Fee" → "" empty text)
2. Add $ to "Ignore Symbols"

Numeric tolerance only applies to records that are entirely numeric with no text. For example, records like"12.34" and "12.35" can match with numeric tolerance, but records like "ID-12.34" and "ID-12.35" would not be considered for numeric matching. You can use substitutions to substitute "ID-" with "" (empty text) and then you can match them numerically.

While the tool doesn't directly support range matching, you can use creative substitutions. For example, if you want to match prices in a range (like $10-15), create substitution rules for each value in the range to standardize to a single value: "$10" → "price_tier_1", "$11" → "price_tier_1", etc.

Use the "Phonetic Matching" option, which identifies entries that sound alike despite different spellings. This is excellent for finding matches like "Smith" and "Smyth" or "Catherine" and "Katherine" or "phone" and "fone".

You have several methods:
- Enable "Phonetic Matching" to match similar-sounding words regardless of accents
- Use "Approximate Matching" with a threshold of 1-2 to catch minor character differences
- Add specific substitutions for common accent variations (é → e, ñ → n)

For alphanumeric codes with slight differences (like "PRD-1234" and "PRD1234"), add - to the "Ignore Symbols" options.

Use the substitutions feature to standardize company names:
- Add substitutions like "Ltd." → "Limited"
- "Corp." → "Corporation"
- "Inc." → "Incorporated"

Use substitutions to convert dates to a standard format:
- Add substitutions like "Jan" → "01", "Feb" → "02"
- Remove date separators using ignored symbols

While the tool works with line-by-line comparison, you can prepare your data by extracting only the relevant columns before uploading. For Excel files, create a text file with just the column you want to compare.

Yes! Use the "Substitutions" feature to build a custom dictionary. For example, add substitutions like "United States" → "USA", "Limited" → "Ltd", etc. The tool will substitute these terms before comparison.

Check the "Top Frequent" tab in your results. This shows the most common entries in each list, helping you identify terms that appear disproportionately in one list versus the other.

The tool provides several methods:
- Check the "Duplicates" tab for each file separately
- Use the "Top Frequent" tab to identify commonly repeated values

For fields where information order might be swapped (like "John Smith" vs "Smith, John"), add both variants as substitution rules. For example, add "Smith, John" → "John Smith" to standardize the format.

Yes! Upload the same list as both File A and File B. The tool will identify entries that match with themselves (exact matches), while near-duplicates will appear in the Approximate, Phonetic, or Numeric tabs depending on the match type you choose.

Each format has specific advantages:
- CSV: Universal compatibility and easy to open in any spreadsheet program
- XLSX: Maintains formatting and multiple tabs for different match types
- JSON: Ideal for developers or for importing results into other systems

When viewing results, navigate to the specific tab with the match type you want (Exact, Approximate, Phonetic, etc.). Then click the export button in that tab to export only those specific matches.

Use the "Substitutions" feature to replace terms with an empty string. For example, add a substitution rule like "Confidential" → "" (empty) to remove this term from all records before comparison.

Yes! After comparison:
1. Export the "Exact Matches" to get entries that appear in both lists
2. Export "Unmatched A" to get entries unique to the first list
3. Export "Unmatched B" to get entries unique to the second list
Combining these three exports gives you a fully merged and deduplicated dataset.

Yes! Upload the same file as both File A and File B. The "Duplicates" tab will show you all entries that appear more than once in your file, along with their frequency counts. Export this list to identify and clean duplicates from your original file.

Before uploading, consider adding a unique identifier or row number to each entry (separated by a delimiter like a tab). After comparison, these identifiers will help you trace matches back to their original position in your source data.

Absolutely! Run an initial self-comparison (same file in both inputs) to identify very high-frequency terms using the "Top Frequent Items" tab. Add these common terms to your exclusion list, then run your actual comparison. This filters out "noise" terms that would otherwise dominate your results, making it easier to spot meaningful differences.

For product codes that might contain variations:
1. Upload your product list as both File A and File B
2. Enable "Approximate Matching" with threshold 1 or 2
3. Check results to identify likely duplicate or variant product codes

Yes, with a multi-compare strategy:
1. First run comparison to find exact matches
2. Export and remove these matches from your original files or add them to the exclusion list
3. Run a second compare with matching criteria (approximate, phonetic) on the remaining data
4. Continue with increasingly flexible matching options
This "waterfall" method gives you confidence in match quality while still finding less obvious matches.

The comparison tool only supports plain text (.txt) files. Binary files or other non-text formats will not be accepted.

No, we DO NOT store any of your uploaded data. All data is discarded once the comparison is complete. Your privacy and data security are important to us, so no information from your files is ever saved on our servers.

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