Patent ID: 7979268

Claim:
A string matching method to output a representative string that matches an input string, the string matching method comprising: converting the input string into a plurality of second-language strings with reference to a language mapping storage, which stores a plurality of pieces of mapping information that maps mapping a consonant-vowel cluster of a Korean syllable in the input string to one or more strings in the second language and a plurality of pieces of mapping information that maps a last consonant of a Korean syllable in the input string to one or more strings in the second language, and generating a conversion list comprising the second-language strings, obtained from the converting of the input string, where each of the second-language strings is a possible transliteration of the input string; searching a representative list storage, which stores a plurality of records, each of the records comprising a representative string and a corresponding second-language representative string, wherein the representative list storage is searched for records comprising the same second-language representative strings as the respective second-language strings included of the conversion list, and generating a candidate list comprising results from the searching; and determining an output representative string by selecting a representative string from one of the records of the candidate list.