Patent ID: 8285739

Claim:
A computer-implemented method of composing a query against data in a database, comprising: receiving a query having one or more result fields and a plurality of query conditions, wherein each query condition defining selection criteria for selection of data records from the database, wherein each query condition specifies at least a field name for identifying a set of data values stored in the database that are associated with the field name, a comparison operator, and a value expression for comparison with each of the set of data values associated with the field name, and wherein each selected data record stores a data value that satisfies at least one of the plurality of query conditions, and wherein each of the plurality of query conditions has a first and second associated weight associated with a first and second accuracy threshold, respectively; receiving, for a first subset of query conditions of the plurality of query conditions, the first accuracy threshold; receiving, for a second subset of query conditions of the plurality of query conditions, the second accuracy threshold for qualifying data records, the first and second accuracy thresholds each defining a respective requested minimum accuracy of each selected data record defining a qualifying data record forming part of a valid result set returned for the query; and for each selected data record, determining whether the first and second accuracy thresholds are satisfied with respect to a cumulative weight of said weighted query conditions that are satisfied, wherein determining comprises: determining a first accuracy value on the basis of the first subset of query conditions, the first accuracy value being indicative of the accuracy of the data record with respect to the first subset of query conditions, and determining a second accuracy value on the basis of the second subset of query conditions, the second accuracy value being indicative of the accuracy of the data record with respect to the second subset of query conditions; and including, as the qualifying data records, with the valid result set for the query all selected data records having at least one of the first and second accuracy values that exceeds at least one of the corresponding first and accuracy thresholds.