Patent ID: 7248247

Claim:
A method for deterministically matching first elements of a first set of objects or events with second elements of a second set of objects or events, matching first and second elements each being associated with common values of an identification code pn having |pn| characters, and where said identification code can be insufficient to uniquely identify said first elements, and portions of said identification code values associated with said first and second elements can be unknown; comprising the steps of: a) generating a mapping θ for said first set such that, for each element l i of said first set θ(l i ) equals <k i , ppn i >, where pn i is at least a portion of said identification code value associated with said element l i and ppn i is defined as the first k i characters of pn i , and k i is selected to be the minimum number of characters required to uniquely identify l i in said first set, whereby values for k i greater than |pn| imply that said element l i is not uniquely identified by said portion ppn i ; b) determining pn j for an element e j in said second set, where pn j is at least a portion of said identification code value associated with said element e j ; and c) matching said element e j and said element l i only if the first k i characters of pn j equal ppn i and not matching said element e j and said element l i if said element l i is not uniquely identified in said first set by said portion pn i .