> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://www.integrate.io/docs/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# ETL: FUZZY_MATCH

> Compare two strings and return a 0–100 similarity score in Integrate.io ETL expressions for fuzzy filters, dedupe, and approximate record matching.

## Description

Returns an integer similarity score from 0 to 100 between two string values, where 100 is the strongest match and 0 is no similarity. Use it to filter rows by approximate match, deduplicate records with inconsistent spelling, or join on fields that do not match exactly.

The function supports three comparison methods. Pick the one that fits the data:

| Method                  | When to use                                                                                                                        |
| ----------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| `levenshtein` (default) | General-purpose edit-distance similarity. Good for typos and minor spelling variations.                                            |
| `jaro_winkler`          | Favors strings that share a common prefix or have transposed characters. Good for names and short identifiers.                     |
| `soundex`               | English-language phonetic match. Returns 100 if both values sound alike, otherwise 0. Good for matching names spelled differently. |

Matching is case-sensitive for `levenshtein` and `jaro_winkler`. Wrap the inputs in `LOWER()` for case-insensitive comparison. `soundex` is inherently case-insensitive.

## Syntax

`FUZZY_MATCH(string1, string2[, method])`

### Arguments

| Argument  | Description                                                                                            |
| --------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| `string1` | Required. The first value to compare. Non-string values are converted to their string representation.  |
| `string2` | Required. The second value to compare. Non-string values are converted to their string representation. |
| `method`  | Optional. One of `levenshtein` (default), `jaro_winkler`, or `soundex`. Case-insensitive.              |

## Examples

Keep rows whose company name is a close match for `Acme Inc`:

```sql theme={null}
FILTER rows BY FUZZY_MATCH(company, 'Acme Inc') >= 85;
```

`FUZZY_MATCH('Apple', 'Aple')` returns `80`.

`FUZZY_MATCH('Apple', 'Apple')` returns `100`.

`FUZZY_MATCH('Robert', 'Rupert', 'jaro_winkler')` returns `85`.

`FUZZY_MATCH('Smith', 'Smyth', 'soundex')` returns `100`.

`FUZZY_MATCH('Smith', 'Jones', 'soundex')` returns `0`.

`FUZZY_MATCH(LOWER(name1), LOWER(name2))` performs a case-insensitive Levenshtein comparison.

## Return value datatype

Integer (0–100).

## Notes

* The `levenshtein` score is the edit distance normalized by the longer string's length, computed as `round(100 * (1 - distance / maxLen))`.
* `soundex` is designed for English and Latin-script letters. Accented characters such as `é` are normalized to their base form before encoding, so `'José'` matches `'Jose'`. Inputs in non-Latin scripts (such as Cyrillic or CJK) cannot be phonetically encoded and return `null`.
* Identical inputs always score 100 for every method.
* The function raises an error if fewer than two arguments are supplied or if an unknown method is requested.

## Impact of null value

Returns `null` if either `string1` or `string2` is null.