Use the Python Record Linkage Toolkit, imported as recordlinkage, when customer records may represent the same entity but differ across fields. It supports entity resolution by comparing candidate record pairs instead of requiring every pair to be inspected manually. section 3.4.3
A practical workflow starts by choosing candidate pairs, defining comparison rules, computing comparison vectors, and retaining records that satisfy the matching criteria. Blocking on postcode reduces comparisons, but assumes postcodes contain no relevant typos and therefore trades recall for performance. section 3.4.3
A minimal linkage configuration can:
- Index records with the same postcode as candidate pairs. section 3.4.3
- Compare first names and surnames with Damerau–Levenshtein similarity using an 0.85 threshold. section 3.4.3
- Compare postcodes exactly and select pairs whose comparison vector contains three matching features. section 3.4.3
- Merge linked identifiers back into the customer data model for downstream deduplication. section 3.4.3
Resolving nearly identical customer records
Suppose two customer rows share a postcode and nearly match on first name and surname. Configure recordlinkage to test that pair, use fuzzy comparisons for the names, and retain it when all three comparison features match. Compare the resulting links with exact duplicate detection: disagreements indicate cases requiring investigation or a later iteration, such as fuzzy matching or purchasing-pattern analysis. section 3.4.3
indexer = recordlinkage.Index() #1
indexer.block('postcode') #2
candidate_links
= indexer.index(all_customers.set_index("customer_id")) #3
Inspect the compact indexing pattern used to block records by postcode before comparison. section 3.4.3
compare = recordlinkage.Compare() #1
compare.string('first_name', 'first_name', method='damerau_levenshtein',
threshold=0.85, label="first_name") #2
compare.string('surname', 'surname', method='damerau_levenshtein',
threshold=0.85, label="surname")
compare.exact('postcode', 'postcode', label="postcode") #3
Inspect the comparison configuration for fuzzy names and exact postcodes. section 3.4.3
