US Patent 10572511 Data clustering based on candidate queries

Received data records, each including one or more values in one or more fields, are processed to identify a matched data cluster. The processing includes: for selected data records, generating a query from one or more values; identifying one or more candidate data records from the received data records using the query; determining whether or not the selected data record satisfies a cluster membership criterion for at least one candidate data cluster of one or more existing data clusters containing the candidate records; and selecting the matched data cluster from among one or more candidate data clusters based at least in part on a growth criterion for the candidate data clusters, or initializing the matched data cluster with the selected data record if the selected data record does not satisfy a cluster membership criterion for any of the existing data clusters or based on a result of the growth criterion.