In a large database of records, synonymous records pose a great problem. Two records referring to the same entity are considered to be synonymous. In the absence of a common identifier, such as a primary key or foreign key, joining such records based on the entities is a tough task. Let's illustrate this with a quick example. Consider the following two records:
| Sno | First name | Middle name | Last name | Address | City | State | Zip |
| 1 | John | NULL | NULL | 312 Delray Ave | Deer Field | FL | 33433 |
| 2 | John | NULL | Sanders | 312 Delray Beach Ave | Deer Field | FL | 33433 |
Both the records refer to the same entity, one Mr. John. Record linkage refers to an umbrella of algorithms that are designed to solve the exact same problem. Record linkage plays a key role today in various applications such as CRM, Loyalty to name a few. They are...
