Patent ID: 8056073

Claim:
A method for comparing and combining information associated with a plurality of separate same-class instances developed by an object-oriented application program comprising steps of: providing an object-oriented application program; using the application program to develop a plurality of same-class instances, each same-class instance having N instance variables, wherein N is an integer greater than 0: assigning values to at least some of the instance variables; providing a graphical user interface which displays the plurality of same-class instances in a tabular form, with the same-class instances presented in columns such that each same-class instance with its same-class instance variables are presented in a separate column and such that same-class instance variables in each column are aligned in rows with corresponding same-class instance variables in adjacent columns, wherein the graphical user interface further displays a composite same-class instance as a column additional to the columns for the same-class instances; providing a plurality of selection buttons, each selection button being uniquely associated with one of the instance variables; selection by a user of N selection buttons to identify values associated with each of the instance variables to be integrated into the composite same-class instance; and merging the selected instance variable values into the composite same-class instance in the graphical user interface with the composite same-class instance.