Patent ID: 7406479

Claim:
A computer implemented set similarity join system, comprising a processor executing the following components: a mapping component that maps strings to sets; a set similarity join component that provides a similarity join output based, at least in part, upon a set overlap between the sets; and the mapping and the join components are invoked by an SSJoin operator, the SSJoin operator based, at least in part, upon R SSJoin A pred S, where R and S are relations, pred is a predicate Λ i {Overlap B (a r ; a s )≧e i }, e i is an expression involving only constants and columns from either R.A or S.A, R(A,B) and S(A,B) where A and B are subsets of columns, and, each distinct value a r ∈ R.A defines a group, which is the subset of all tuples in R where R.A =a r .