On 24 May 2007 15:13:45 -0700, Pete_UK wrote:

I can see how you might justify 1057123 as being "similar" to
10571234, as the first 7 digits are the same (although by that logic
then 1 is similar), but how can you say that 1571234 is similar?

Hi Pete. Yes these were not currency values as in £ or $ but for
example might be order numbers etc that have been miskeyed. Like I
said its a number not a currency so in this instance as its not
sequential it would be similar.

Your
logic would dictate that 14, 134, 1234, 11234, 171234 are also
similar, and if digits can be missing from the second position
onwards, then why not from the third position, or fourth position etc?
There would then be a very large number of "similar" numbers to test
out.

Not with this. I would just be looking at common errors where one
number might be missed out in error but the majority are still in
sequence. Or it might be a case of dyslexia where someone has put in
43 instead of 34 etc. So you will still have perhaps the first 5
numbers correct or the last 5 correct. Maybe a number in the middle
would be miskeyed or missed out so it would be the first few and last
numbers I would be looking for that are the same.

Cheers

John