US 7,464,101 B2 Dec. 9, 2008
FUZZY ALPHANUMERIC SEARCH
APPARATUS AND METHOD
Inventor: Bruce Allan Beitman, Westerville, OH
(US)
Assignee: Alcatel-Lucent USA Inc., Murray Hill, NJ (US)
Notice: Subject to any disclaimer, the term of this patent is extended or adjusted under 35 U.S.C. 154(b) by 275 days.
Appl.No.: 11/401,809
Filed: Apr. 11, 2006
Prior Publication Data
US 2007/0239752 Al Oct. 11, 2007
Int. CI.
G06F 7/00 (2006.01)
U.S. CI 707/101; 707/6; 707/7;
707/100; 707/102
Field of Classification Search None
See application file for complete search history.
References Cited
U.S. PATENT DOCUMENTS 6,515,598 B2* 2/2003 Parenteau et al 341/60
A fuzzy alphanumeric search apparatus searches for a search character string (e.g., MPN) in a source character string (CPN) database. The match is fuzzy since it only matches some of the MPN characters (referred to as tokens) against some of the CPN characters. Nearly all part numbers have a base number (base token) that is typically found at the beginning of the MPN. A base token and other tokens are generated, used to identify CPNs having the greatest total of MPN character position matches, and are outputted as a potential (fuzzy) CPN match list to the user. The user then determines if in fact a true CPN match is found in the fuzzy CPN list. The Fuzzy MPN match technique is significantly faster than manual wildcard searches.
6 Claims, 8 Drawing Sheets
