Patent Document ID: 8117026
Application ID: 11636634

Base Claim:
1. A string matching method of outputting a representative string that matches an input string, the string matching method comprising: converting the input string into one or more phonetic symbol strings with reference to a phonetic symbol mapping table corresponding to a language of the input string, and generating a conversion list including the one or more phonetic symbol strings, the phonetic symbol mapping table storing mapping information for mapping a string written in the language to one or more phonetic symbol sub-strings; searching, by a string matching apparatus, a representative list database (DB) for records including the one or more phonetic symbol strings included in the conversion list, and generating a candidate list including the records, the representative list DB storing the records, each of the records comprising a representative string and a representative phonetic symbol string corresponding to the representative string; and determining a representative string in one of the records of the candidate list as an output representative string, wherein the converting the input string comprises allocating the one or more phonetic symbol sub-strings to each sub-string of the input string with reference to the phonetic symbol mapping table for each sub-string of the input string, and generating the one or more phonetic symbol strings according to one or more combinations of the allocated one or more phonetic symbol sub-strings.

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Claim 2:
2. The string matching method of claim 1 , wherein: the phonetic symbol mapping table comprises: first mapping information comprising a first sub-string of the input string and one or more first phonetic symbol sub-strings, the first mapping information mapping the first sub-string to the one or more first phonetic symbol sub-strings, and second mapping information comprising a second sub-string of the input string and one or more second phonetic symbol sub-strings, the second mapping information mapping the second sub-string to the one or more second phonetic symbol sub-strings; and the generating the one or more phonetic symbol strings comprises generating a first phonetic symbol string according to a first combination of the one or more first phonetic symbol sub-strings with the one or more second phonetic symbol sub-strings, and generating a second phonetic symbol string according to a second combination, different from the first combination, of the one or more first phonetic symbol sub-strings with the one or more second phonetic symbol sub-strings.