Patent Document ID: 8032517
Application ID: 12227996

Base Claim:
1. A computer-aided method for the automatic evaluation of the similarity of two character strings that are stored in a computer or to which the computer has access by means of an interface, the method comprising: locating of associations in the character strings according to a rule stored in the computer; evaluating located associations according to a first rule stored in the computer, whereby cohesive associations—hereinafter also designated as association strings—are evaluated higher for the similarity of the character strings than non-cohesive associations; and deriving of a value, in particular a numerical value, as measure for the similarity of the two character strings from the evaluation of the sought associations according to a second rule stored in the computer, wherein the value for the similarity of the two character strings is constituted by the values of their not overlapping fragments, wherein a fragment is every association and any association string in the two character strings to be compared.

---

Claim 17:
17. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the positions of characters in a character strings are numbered in sequence so that for each character in a character string a position number indicates unambiguously its position in the character string, and that for the determination of the similarity of two character strings the present characters are assigned to the positions occupied by the characters of the two character strings, and that especially the fragments are assigned to the positions that the characters of the two character strings constituting the fragments occupy, and that the positions are correspondingly evaluated.