1.2 Personator Usage

      1.2.1 If my Name field contains Full Names and Inverse Names, will it               split each format correctly into separate FIRST and LAST name               fields?
      1.2.2 Will Personator recognize and split Dual Names?
      1.2.3 Will names containing typos get genderized?
      1.2.4 What’s Genderbase100?
      1.2.5 What are the lookup tables?
      1.2.6 Do I have any control over how Personator processes my file?
      1.2.7 Are their any different versions? Like a programmers library?
      1.2.8 Can I run the program or process over the network?




FAQs

1.Personator Content
     1.1 Personator Basics

1.1.1 What is the Personator?

Personator is a data management tool used to...

• Split Names into their components and deposit them into separate fields.

• Genderize Names by analyzing the first names in your data against a first name table and adds a gender prefix (which you can specify). You specify whether the prefix should be put into a separate field or inserted into the First Name.

• Create Salutations - both Formal ("Dear Prefix LastName") and Informal ("Dear FirstName") salutation fields. The logic is much better than any word processor when dealing with incomplete data. For example, if you specify Informal but a given record's First Name contains initials or is blank, the program will switch to Formal for that record.

• Split Addresses and city/state/zip fields into separate address component fields and separate city, state, zip fields


1.1.2 What is setup?

A Setup is the type of process you want to run on your data. A Personator Setup file ( .pers file extension ) is a saved setup which contains the instructions this job uses – which fields to parse, how to genderize or create salutations, and how to create the output fields which will be populated with the results. Every file may be processed differently, using one of the available processes, or all four processes. The setup file stores these instructions, and allows you to review the results at a later time.

1.1.3 How many users can use my license?

A single license generally allows a single computer to be running Personator. For questions regarding copyright, licensing, and multiple licensing ( or site - licenses ), contact Melissa Data Sales. This is an important topic beyond the scope of the FAQ.

1.1.4 What type of support do you offer?

Technical support is always free, as are the frequent updates, and many online resources found on our website.

1.1.5 How do I know the assigned Gender is guaranteed to           be 100% correct?

You don’t, short of seeing and interviewing the respective person. That’s why the precision and demographic options give you the flexibility to tell Personator the likely demographics of your data and even conservatively assign a neutral or no gender to names which can traditionally be male or female.

1.1.6 Will it split International data?

While Personator does an excellent job with domestic US and Canadian addresses, and the name lookup tables ( using Genderbase 100 ) encompass over 99% of recognized first names in census data, the data types and address patterns of other countries, and all newly used names and international names is beyond the scope of this program. This is not to say that if you have a compiled list of international key words of the data types we process, and what they represent, you can’t increase the accuracy of how Personator works. You are welcome to massively edit the lookup tables and give it a shot; we just don’t have the international expertise to guarantee the results.

1.2.1 If my Name field contains Full Names and Inverse            Names, will it split each format correctly into            separate FIRST and LAST name fields

Yes, If field data contains ‘John L. Smith’, ‘Smith Jr., John’ or ‘Mr. John Lydon Smith Jr. PhD.’ for example, it will be able to distinguish first name from last name from prefix, etc.

1.2.2 Will Personator recognize and split Dual Names?

Yes, the Personator name splitter can handle ‘Mr and Mrs John Smith’, ‘Mr John & Jane Smith’, ‘Mr. John Smith’ and ‘Mr. John Smith and Mrs Jane Seymour’, returning two sets of parsed output fields.


1.2.3 Will names containing typos get genderized?

Yes, Personator can genderize and correct the spelling of common first name typos if you have the Genderbase 100 add-on.

1.2.4 What’s Genderbase100?

Genderbase 100 is a two lookup tables add-on, which increases processing accuracy. It contains over 100,000 names ( whereas the default table contains 8700 names covering 99% of domestic first names ) and common misspellings – which can be genderized and corrected

1.2.5 What are the lookup tables?

These program files are lists of known keywords associated with a specific data type ( Prefix, First Name, Address, and State for example ). They help Personator to process different data types using advanced methods, because it recognizes the keywords and knows how they should be treated. The user may edit or append these lists to help Personator decide how to more accurately process your data. Caution: When you edit these tables you may be overwriting years of programming experience on how to best handle these common data types.

1.2.6 Do I have any control over how Personator            processes my file?

Yes. You have complete control over the accompanying program Lookup Tables for each data type Personator processes. You can edit the existing list of recognized keywords, add additional entries, or delete existing ones. All of which have a direct impact on how your data is processed. The setup options also allow you to specify the formats of names most likely to be present as your inputs, specify gender precision, demographics or desired output assignments.

1.2.7 Are their any different versions? Like a programmers            library?

Personator is also offered as a 32-bit DLL programmer’s library, which uses the same tried and true engine as the Windows version, minus most of the Personator toolset, but gives you the ability to take more control over file handling for real-time data entry or web processing

1.2.8 Can I run the program or process over the network?

Yes, you can access your data and process over the network. You can also run the program over the network – keeping in compliance with your site license agreement of course.