Patent ID: 8250078

Claim:
A computer implemented iterative process for generating entity representations in a computer implemented database using a record matching formula and for generating parameters for the record matching formula, the database comprising a plurality of records, each record comprising a plurality of fields, each field capable of containing a field value, wherein at least a portion of the parameters for the record matching formula are specific to a particular plurality of field values associated with a particular plurality of fields, the process comprising: adding, in the database, a supplemental field to each of the plurality of records; populating each supplemental field of each one of the plurality of records with a supplemental field value, each supplemental field value representative of multiple field values from the particular plurality of fields of that record; calculating a plurality of supplemental field value weights, each supplemental field value weight associated with a supplemental field value, each supplemental field value weight reflecting a likelihood that an arbitrary record in the database comprises an associated supplemental field value; forming a plurality of entity representations in the database, at least one entity representation comprising at least two records linked using a first instance of the record matching formula comprising a supplemental field value weight associated with a field value appearing in the supplemental field of at least one of the at least two records; calculating a plurality of revised supplemental field value weights, each revised supplemental field value weight associated with a particular supplemental field value, each revised supplemental field value weight reflecting a likelihood that an arbitrary entity representation in the database comprises an associated supplemental field value; linking at least two entity representations in the database based on a second instance of the record matching formula, wherein the second instance of the record matching formula comprises a revised supplemental field value weight associated with a field value appearing in the supplemental field of at least one of the at least two entity representations, whereby a number of entity representations in the database is reduced by the forming a plurality of linked entity representations; and retrieving information from at least one record in the database.