Patent ID: 7606816

Claim:
A method of encoding data, the method comprising: locating, by a computer in a set of data, one or more primary data items that match one or more patterns in a set of specified patterns, wherein the patterns in the set of specified patterns correspond to symbols; for each primary data item of the one or more primary data items, performing steps comprising: determining the symbol that is associated with the pattern that the primary data item matches, and replacing the primary data item in the set of data with the symbol; after performing the replacing, locating, in the set of data, one or more secondary data items that existed in the set of data prior to the replacing; for each secondary data item of the one or more secondary data items, performing particular steps comprising: generating a hash value based on the secondary data item; and replacing the secondary data item in the set of data with a symbol that is associated with the hash value; wherein the set of data corresponds to a first document that contains multiple records; and determining boundaries for each record in the first document based on symbols that have replaced the secondary data items in the set of data.