Patent ID: 8873748

Claim:
A method for generating a surrogate key using cryptographic hashing in a system having a database having records, the records having fields having data therein, the method comprising: selecting a field that is unique among all records in the database and for each record, extracting the data from the fields; concatenating the extracted data to a predetermined length to yield an input message; inputting the input message to a hash generator to perform the following steps: dividing the input message into a set of chunks; dividing each chunk into a first set of words; generating a second set of words based on the first set of words; generating a third set of words based on the second set of words; and generating final results for each message based on the third set of words; and outputting a surrogate key based on the final results, wherein the surrogate key for each record has an identical fixed length and wherein sequential generations of the surrogate key for an identical record by the hash generator yield identical results.