If a record does not match any of the previous master records, it is considered as a new master record and added to the lookup table. This means that the first record of the dataset is necessarily a master record. So, the order of the records is important and can have an impact on the creation process of the master records.
When a record matches a master record, the Simple VSR Matcher algorithm does not further attempt to match with other master records because all the master records in the lookup table are not similar. So, once a record matches a master record, the chance of matching another master record is low.
This means a record can only exist in one group of records and be linked to one master record.
For example, take the following set of records as input:
| id | fullName |
|---|---|
| 1 | John Doe |
| 2 | Donna Lewis |
| 3 | John B. Doe |
| 4 | Louis Armstrong |
The algorithm processes the input records as follows:
- The algorithm takes record 1 and compares it with an empty set of records. Since record 1 does not match any record, it is added to the lookup table.
- The algorithm takes record 2 and compares it with record 1. Since it is not a match, record 2 is added to the lookup table.
- The algorithm takes record 3 and compares it with record 1 and record 2. Record 3 matches record 1. So, record 3 is added to the group of record 1.
- The algorithm takes record 4 and compares it with record 1 and record 2 but not with record 3, which is not a master record. Since it is not a match, record 4 is added to the lookup table.
The output will look like this:
| id | fullName | Grp_ID | Grp_Size | Master | Score | GRP_QUALITY |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | John Doe | 0 | 2 | true | 1.0 | 0.72 |
| 3 | John B. Doe | 0 | 0 | false | 0.72 | 0 |
| 2 | Donna Lewis | 1 | 1 | true | 1.0 | 1.0 |
| 4 | Louis Armstrong | 2 | 1 | true | 1.0 | 1.0 |