Now that we have created the index, we can perform a search. Search returns all matching records from the index for a single query. This is useful for situations in which you want to search a single name against an existing index.
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Select Search in the Options column for the quickstart index.
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Type or paste the name “Phillip Ward” in the Person Name field. Leave the Company Name field blank.
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Select Run Search.
After completing the above steps, Match Studio displays a list of potential name matches from the index in descending order by match score. The Match Score is an indication of how similar two names are and ranges from 0% to 100%. The top result is Phillip Ward with a match score of 100%. The match score is highlighted in green to indicate that it is a good match. Any match with a score above the match threshold, a configurable value which is set to 70% by default, is highlighted in this manner.
The next highest match score is 44% for Felipe Viana. This can be attributed to the fact that while Felipe and Phillip are similar, Viana and Ward are not. The score is not high enough to be considered a match in our current configuration.
Let's explore what happens when we search for a company name as well.
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Ensure that the Person Name field still contains "Phillip Ward".
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Type or paste "Babel St" in the Company Name field.
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Select Run Search.
Now, the match score for the Phillip Ward result should drop to 88%. Let's find out why.
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Select the plus sign next to the Phillip Ward result to expand it.
A table appears displaying the scoring information for each field (person name and company name). As you can see by the field score column, each field is scored separately. While the person names in this search have a match score of 100%, the business scores only have a match of 76%. Each field also has a weight; this number is configurable, but the default is to divide the weight evenly among all searched fields. To determine the final match score, Match Studio calculates the sum of all field scores multiplied by their corresponding field weights. In this case: (76% * 50%) + (100% * 50%) = 88%.