Patent ID: 7792835

Claim:
A method for selecting mutually exclusive sets of database records from a database system comprising: storing a plurality of database records including at least one target parameter in the database system; assigning at least one randomly generated persistent identifier to each of the plurality of database records; selecting a range of the at least one persistent identifier that is assigned to the plurality of database records; and identifying a set of database records, the set of database records contained within the range of the at least one persistent identifier; wherein the at least one persistent identifier is associated with a database record of the set of database records; wherein the at least one database record includes at least one targeted parameter; determining if the set of database records contains a desired number of database records; expanding the range of the at least one persistent identifier if the desired number of database records is not contained within the set of database records; and determining a variance between a number of database records contained within the set of database records and the desired number of database records.