Finding Matched Pairs using each record only once in SQL Server

Question

I need to find matched pairs of records in SQL Server, but each record can only be included in 1 pair. Once a record has been matched with a pair, it should be removed from consideration for any future pairs.

I have tried solutions involving ROW_NUMBER() and LEAD(), but i just can't quite get there.

This will be used to pair financial accounts with similar accounts for review, based on multiple customer attributes such as credit score, income, etc.

Statement:

declare @test table (ID numeric, Color varchar(20))
insert into @test values
        (1,'Blue'),(2,'Red'),(3,'Blue'),(4,'Yellow'),(5,'Blue'),(6,'Red')

select* 
from @test t1
join @test t2 
    on t1.Color = t2.Color
    and t1.ID < t2.ID           -----removes reverse-pairs and self-pairs

Current results:

ID  Color   ID  Color
--- ------- --- --------
1   Blue    3   Blue
1   Blue    5   Blue        -----should not appear because 1 has already been paired
3   Blue    5   Blue        -----should not appear because 3 and 5 have already been paired
2   Red     6   Red

Needed results:

ID  Color   ID  Color
--- ------- --- --------
1   Blue    3   Blue
2   Red     6   Red

Answer 1

Editing with Max comments

Here is one way to get this done..

I first rank the records on the basis of color with the lowest id with rnk=1, next one with rnk=2.

After that i join the tables together by pulling the rnk=1 records and joining then with rnk=2.

declare @test table (ID numeric, Color varchar(20))
insert into @test values
        (1,'Blue'),(2,'Red'),(3,'Blue'),(4,'Yellow'),(5,'Blue'),(6,'Red'),(7,'Blue')

;with data
  as (select row_number() over(partition by color order by id asc) as rnk
            ,color
            ,id
       from @test
       )
select a.id,a.color,b.id,b.color
 from data a
 join data b
   on a.Color=b.Color
  and b.rnk=a.rnk+1
where a.rnk%2=1

i get the output as follows

+----+-------+----+-------+
| id | color | id | color |
+----+-------+----+-------+
|  1 | Blue  |  3 | Blue  |
|  5 | Blue  |  7 | Blue  |
|  2 | Red   |  6 | Red   |
+----+-------+----+-------+