Patent ID: 11886438
Assignee: NATIONAL STUDENT CLEARINGHOUSE
Field: Computer technology (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC G | IPC G

Claim 8:
9. A method of processing records, comprising:
receiving, at a server, incoming data records;
generating, at a server, a plurality of match codes for each of the incoming data records;
comparing, at the server, the match codes of the data records to predetermined match codes of the records in a database by utilizing a series of sequential matching strategies that increases an efficiency of the at least one server by, in each sequential matching strategy, comparing at least one match code associated with a respective sequential matching strategy to the predetermined match codes of the records in the database to identify a subset of potential matches;
proceeding to a subsequent matching strategy in the series of sequential matching strategies if a match is not found in the subset of potential matches
wherein the step of weighing the records in the subset of potential matches comprises:
comparing a plurality of attributes of each incoming data record to the subset of potential matches;
returning a weighted value associated with each of the plurality of attributes;
summing the weighted values; and
comparing the sum of the weighted values to the threshold value,
wherein comparing a plurality of attributes of each incoming data record to the subset of potential matches increases efficiency of the server by reducing a total number of data records that the plurality of attributes are compared to; and
wherein comparing a plurality of attributes, returning a weighted value, summing the weighted values, and comparing the weighted values to the threshold value increases the accuracy of the server by permitting the subset of potential matches to be evaluated according to the plurality of attributes.