Nearness settings

You can edit the attributes and the criteria used to calculate 'nearness' in the Find Similar tool.

In Records Similar to:

  1. Click Nearness Settings.
  2. Select or clear the check boxes to include or exclude attributes from the nearness calculation.
  3. Select the criteria type, where available, from the 100% when menu.
    This sets how data values higher or lower than the reference record are treated in the nearness calculation. There are three options to choose from:
    • Identical - Only having the same data value as a reference record is considered as no difference. Differences are calculated for values higher or lower than the reference record.
    • Same or higher - Having the same data value or a higher data value than the reference record is considered as no difference. Differences are calculated for values lower than the reference record.
    • Same or lower - Having the same data value or a lower data value than the reference record is considered as no difference. Differences are calculated for values higher than the reference record.
  4. Enter a weighting factor. This is the relative weighting that is given to an attribute in the nearness calculation. It must be between 0.01 and 100 (default is 1).
    Note:
    • By default, only the attributes that are populated for the current reference record will be shown. To show all available attributes, select Show all attributes. A warning icon will be shown next to the attributes that have no data for the reference record. To ensure accurate results, you should not include any attributes in the nearness calculation which are unpopulated.
    • Use Clear All to set all attributes to excluded (unselected), and Defaults to restore the recommended settings for the current dataset.
    • Nearness settings are saved with a selection project. When Find Similar is using settings that are not the default for the dataset, a Custom nearness warning is displayed in the Records similar to dialog.