Patent Document ID: 7870151
Application ID: 11762672
Patent Flag: 1

Claim One:
1. A method of processing computer-readable data, comprising computer-implemented operations of: identifying a candidate pool of records of a multi-record computer-readable reference database by performing fuzzy matching between a first set of fields of an input record and corresponding fields of records from the reference database; filtering the candidate pool by removing records from the candidate pool demonstrating prescribed weaknesses of said fuzzy match with the first set of fields of the input record; analyzing the filtered candidate pool by performing fuzzy matching between a second set of fields of the input record and corresponding fields of records of the filtered candidate pool; performing at least one of the following operations: pruning the candidate pool according to results of the analyzing operation and providing a computer-readable output including identification of records of the pruned candidate pool, the pruning comprising removing records from the candidate pool; providing a computer-readable output including identification of records of the candidate pool and results of the analyzing operation; wherein the operations further comprise: for each record of the reference database, applying a first group of one or more key generators to a third set of fields of said record to compute keys from values of said fields, where the key generators of the first group are programmed to compute keys such that each key is produced exclusively by a set of input values having predetermined similarities to each other; the operation of identifying a candidate pool comprises, performing operations comprising: applying the first group of key generators to compute keys from values of fields of the first set of fields of the input record, the first set being a subset of the third set; comparing the keys computed from fields of the input record to keys computed from corresponding fields of records of the reference database; designating the following as a candidate pool: any record in the reference database where at least one key computed from one or more fields of said record matches a key computed from corresponding fields of the input record.