An ’Algorithm’ contains customizable rules which control how the Services operate. What is called by the application program is therefore a ’customized’ Service.

An Algorithm is customized for a given ’population’ of names. A population could be ’the customer file’, or ’the person names within a customer file’. It could be the ’address file’, ’company name file’ or ’product name’ file. It could also be the ’French’ person name file as opposed to the ’English’ person name file.

The fast-start Service Groups provided in the country folders on the SSA-NAME3 Extensions for 1.8 Users CD normally contain Algorithms for one or more of the following population types: Person Names, Company Names, Mixed Names and Street Addresses.

An Algorithm may also be customized to the level of usage of that population of names. For example, a Key Building Service for a person name population may use one Algorithm, and the Matching Service for the same population may use a different Algorithm.

Algorithm definitions are the most complex part of the Service Group Definition File. For this reason, they are described separately in the next chapter.