Method and apparatus for postal address matching

Abstract

Provided are methods and apparatus for matching postal addresses. In an example, provided is a method for comparing postal addresses. The method includes receiving a first postal address, standardizing the form of the first postal address, removing a component of the first postal address to create a canonical representation of the first postal address, and utilizing a signature-based algorithm to identify at least one stored signature which substantially matches the first postal address.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method for comparing postal addresses, comprising:
 receiving a first postal address;   forming a token set from at least a portion of the first postal address;   creating a postal address signature from the token set, wherein the postal address signature is a fuzzy-token based signature;   identifying a matching signature by comparing the postal address signature to at least one stored signature in a plurality of stored signatures;   identifying a second postal address corresponding to the matching signature; and   identifying a match between the first postal address and the second postal address based on the matching signature.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising removing at least one component of the first postal address prior to the forming the token set. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein the at least one component of the first postal address is a street address, a postal code, or a combination thereof. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein the postal code is one or more of a zip code, a postcode, a codes postaux, a post code, an Eircode, a postal routing number, a Postal Index Number, a Codice di Avviamento Postale, a Código de Endereçamento Postal, a Postleitzahl, a postal zone code, a postal district code, or a combination thereof. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein the identifying the match further comprises comparing the at least one removed component to a corresponding component of the second postal address. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the token set is formed at least in part from a street name, a city name, or a combination thereof. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising correcting a misspelling in the first postal address prior to creating the postal address signature. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising standardizing, prior to creating the token set, a component in the first postal address. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 8 , wherein the standardizing is done to a country-specific standard. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the postal address signature is a q-gram based signature and “q” is a number equal to two or greater than two, a Deletion-Based neighborhood generation algorithm-based signature, an A O(log n) Signature-Based String Matching Algorithm-based signature, an AdaptJoin algorithm-based signature, a VChunk algorithm-based signature, a PassJoin algorithm-based signature, a FastSS algorithm-based signature, an ExB: Exclusion-based string matching algorithm-based signature, a Part-Enum algorithm-based signature, a Partition-ED algorithm-based signature, or a Partition-NED algorithm-based signature. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising receiving the first postal address via a computer network, from a computer, a mobile device, a wearable device, a cloud-based computer network, or a combination thereof. 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the method is at least a part of an address cleansing process, an address validating process, a data cleansing process, a data integration process, or a combination thereof. 
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising weighting one or more tokens in the token set. 
     
     
         14 . An apparatus configured to comparing postal addresses, comprising:
 a processor; and   a memory coupled to the processor and configured to cause the processor to create specific logic circuits within the processor, wherein the specific logic circuits are configured to cause the processor to:
 initiate receiving a first postal address; 
 initiate forming a token set from at least a portion of the first postal address; 
 initiate creating a postal address signature from the token set, wherein the postal address signature is a fuzzy-token based signature; 
 initiate identifying a matching signature by comparing the postal address signature to at least one stored signature in a plurality of stored signatures; 
 initiate identifying a second postal address corresponding to the matching signature; and 
 initiate identifying a match between the first postal address and the second postal address based on the matching signature. 
   
     
     
         15 . The apparatus of  claim 14 , wherein the memory is configured to cause the processor to initiate creating specific logic circuits configured to cause the processor to initiate removing at least one component of the first postal address prior to the forming the token set. 
     
     
         16 . The apparatus of  claim 14 , further comprising a computing device with which the processor is integrated. 
     
     
         17 . The apparatus of  claim 14 , wherein the processor is a microprocessor, a microcontroller, a digital signal processor, a field programmable gate array, a programmable logic device, an application-specific integrated circuit, a controller, a non-generic special-purpose processor, a state machine, a gated logic device, a discrete hardware component, a dedicated hardware finite state machine, or a combination thereof. 
     
     
         18 . A non-transitory computer-readable medium, comprising:
 processor-executable instructions stored thereon and configured to cause a processor to:
 initiate receiving a first postal address; 
 initiate forming a token set from at least a portion of the first postal address; 
 initiate creating a postal address signature from the token set, wherein the postal address signature is a fuzzy-token based signature; 
 initiate identifying a matching signature by comparing the postal address signature to at least one stored signature in a plurality of stored signatures; 
 initiate identifying a second postal address corresponding to the matching signature; and 
 initiate identifying a match between the first postal address and the second postal address based on the matching signature. 
   
     
     
         19 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium of  claim 18 , wherein the processor-executable instructions further include instructions configured to initiate causing the processor to remove at least one component of the first postal address prior to the forming the token set. 
     
     
         20 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium of  claim 18 , wherein the at least one component of the first postal address is a street address, a postal code, or a combination thereof.