{
  "id": "2002-march-april-automating-parsing",
  "slug": "2002-march-april-automating-parsing",
  "url": "https://dwillis.github.io/uplink/article/2002-march-april-automating-parsing.html",
  "year": 2002,
  "month": "March-April",
  "monthNum": 3,
  "headline": "Automating parsing",
  "kicker": "Tech tips",
  "author_name": "Ron Nixon",
  "author_title": "",
  "affiliation": "IRE and NICAR",
  "summary": "Ron Nixon reviews various software tools like Splitter and NameChop that automate the tedious process of parsing and cleaning dirty name and address data.",
  "keywords": [
    "parsing",
    "software",
    "data cleaning"
  ],
  "topics": [
    "Investigative Methods",
    "Data & Databases",
    "Technology"
  ],
  "technologies": [
    "Access",
    "Splitter",
    "NameChop",
    "DupeDetect",
    "McXtract",
    "ParseRat",
    "Potters Wheel"
  ],
  "full_text": "A few years back while I was a reporter at the Roanoke (Va.) Times, I came across a problem in a database that confounded me for days: names spelled hundreds of different ways. After searching the Web I found a little program called Splitter made for Microsoft Access databases. The program not only splits names no matter how they are entered, it also guesses the gender. One of my favorites programs, NameChop, is available for free from Semaphore Corp.'s Website. In addition to NameChop, Semaphore also gives away DupeDetect, a program that lets you flag duplicate records. Another program that works fairly well at parsing files is McXtract. A parsing program that had gotten attention on the IRE listserv for parsing is ParseRat, which costs about $50 and parses addresses as well. Programmers in the open source movement have also developed a parsing and data-cleaning program called Potters Wheel.",
  "provenance": {
    "extracted_by": "pre-v2",
    "extracted_at": "",
    "verified": true
  },
  "similar": [
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      "slug": "2004-march-readmetxt",
      "score": 0.329
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    {
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  ],
  "html_url": "https://dwillis.github.io/uplink/article/2002-march-april-automating-parsing.html",
  "json_url": "https://dwillis.github.io/uplink/article/2002-march-april-automating-parsing.json"
}