Patent ID: 8650209

Claim:
A computer program embodied on a non-transitory computer readable medium, comprising: computer code for receiving a new record, the newly received record storing data in a plurality of fields; computer code for identifying a user identifier of a first predetermined field of the newly received record; computer code for selecting a data structure based on the user identifier of the first predetermined field, the data structure specific to the user identifier such that a separate entry is created in the data structure only for each received record containing the user identifier, wherein the entry in the data structure for each received record containing the user identifier stores only a timestamp of the received record: computer code for identifying a timestamp of a second predetermined field of the newly received record; computer code for comparing the timestamp of the second predetermined field of the newly received record to the entries stored in the data structure, including first comparing a portion of data of a first type stored in the timestamp indicating a date associated with the newly received record to at least a first portion of the entries, and in response to identifying a match based on the first comparison, subsequently comparing a portion of data of a second type stored in the timestamp indicating a time associated with the newly received record to at least a second portion of the entries, such that the portion of data of the second type stored in the timestamp is compared to at least a second portion of the entries only if a match is identified between the portion of data of the first type stored in the timestamp to at least the first portion of the entries; computer code for determining whether the newly received record is at least potentially a duplicate of at least one of the other received records, based on the comparison, where it is determined that the newly received record is at least potentially the duplicate of the at least one of the other received records in response to a determination that the timestamp matches one of the entries stored in the data structure; computer code for adding the timestamp of the second predetermined field of the newly received record to the data structure, in response to a determination that the newly received record is not potentially a duplicate of at least one of the other received records; and computer code for providing a query to a database for determining whether an actual duplicate of the newly received record exists, in response to a determination that the newly received record is at least potentially a duplicate of at least one of the other received records; wherein the data structure is selected from a plurality of data structures, each of the data structures specific to a different user identifier.