The Pattern Matching Method is a pattern and wildcard matching routine. The first record is the pattern record and the second record is the file record. For example if the first record to be matched is

JOHN*

and the second is

JOHNNY

then the Score returned will be 100%.

The special wildcard characters in the pattern are,

An example is the pattern,

J* SM(IY)TH?

matched against the file record,

JOHN SMYTHE

The pattern character

J

matches the file record character

J

. The * matches the characters

OHN

. The two spaces match. The

SM

matches the

SM

in the file record. The Y in the file record matches the

Y

between the ( and ). The

TH

in the pattern matches the TH in the file record and finally the

?

matches the

E

in the file record.

The above example shows how

N3SCF

works but not really why you would use it. If all you wanted was the

J SMITH

s a retrieval based on the Name-key would suffice. But what if you want all the

J SMITH

s that live in a particular geographic area. You would retrieve a set of candidates using the Name-key, then match the telephone area code, against a pattern like,

21(12345)

This will filter those candidates with an area code of 211, 212, 213, 214 or 215.

This method accepts no local options.