fuzzy_match_genus: Fuzzy Match Genus Name Against Peru Mammals Database

In perumammals: Taxonomic Backbone and Name Validation Tools for Mammals of Peru

Fuzzy Match Genus Name Against Peru Mammals Database

Description

Performs fuzzy matching of genus names against the peru_mammals database using string distance (Levenshtein) to account for slight spelling variations. Maximum distance is set to 1 character difference.

This implementation uses a two-step approach to avoid warnings when no matches are found:

1. Perform stringdist_left_join to get all candidates

2. Split into valid (finite distance) and invalid (NA distance)

3. Process only valid matches to find best candidates

Usage

fuzzy_match_genus(df, target_df = NULL)

Arguments

df	A data frame containing the genus names to be matched. Must include column: Orig.Genus
target_df	A data frame representing peru_mammals database. Must include column: genus

Details

If multiple genera match with the same string distance (ambiguous matches), a warning is issued and the first match is automatically selected. To examine ambiguous matches, use get_ambiguous_matches(result, type = "genus").

Ambiguous match information is stored as an attribute and includes:

• Original genus

• All matched genera with tied distances

• Family information from peru_mammals

• Number of species per genus

Value

A tibble with two additional columns:

• fuzzy_match_genus: Logical indicating if genus was matched

• fuzzy_genus_dist: Numeric distance for each match (lower = better)

• Matched.Genus: The matched genus name

perumammals documentation built on Jan. 6, 2026, 5:06 p.m.