Compare Partial List to List and Identify Product

[ramnewbietoaccess]

I realize that to answer this question totally is beyond the scope of this site. I am just hoping someone could point me in a direction to research or provide suggestions.

I have a list of several "kit" products that are comprised of possible componenets. The kit definitions list all the componenets that might make up the kit. When an end user actually orders the products, they may or may not order all of the kit componenets. Many components are used in more that one kit. It is sort of like when you order a car, the components may be used in different models and the ordered car may or not include air conditioning, etc.

I am looking for an automated way to have a list of components on an order compare to all of the kit definitions and tell me what kit that group of ordered components is most like.

Does anyone know of any suggestions, direction, research, or similar projects that I could check out?\

I thank you in advance for any ideas.

 

[macropod]

Hi,

Exact matches from amongst an array of items are easy enough to match back to an individual product, but it's the "most like" part of the equation that presents the real problem here. That is something that you would need to develop an appropriate set of criteria for.

Taking you car analogy a bit further, what might you match to if a customer building a dune buggy bought an engine & transmission assembly that is used in a number of models, but no body - or an engine from one model and a transmission from another?

If you're keen (or desperate), I'm sure you could develop the necessary 'fuzzy' logic in Excel or Access, but the end result might be no better (and could be much poorer) than what you might come up with intuitively by assessing the products visually or, better still, asking the customer what the base kit they used for their project was.

Cheers