摘要 |
<p>A method of improving the speed with which a sample data record can be matched against records in a database comprises defining a list of possible key values (430), testing those key values against the sample and, for each record in the database, counting the number of key values that match both the record and the sample at reference positions selected by a mask. A list of possible matches is then selected on the basis of that count, for more detailed matching or analysis. Such a method provides very fast matching at the expense of some additional effort when registering a new record within the database.</p> |