Ok.

Variants, = mixture of values contained in each field.

Sample records = Live records containing these values

I don't care about the combination, but we do need to have the minimum number of records so: 


[A1,B1],[A1,B2],[A2,B1],[A2,B2]  (variants over 2 fields)

[download]

could be resolved in 3 records as you have said: 

record 1 - contains [A1,B1]
record 2 - contains [A1,B2]
record 3 - contains [A2,B1]

[download]

HOWEVER, if there are 2 records that contain:

record 1 - [A1,B1]
record 2 - [A2,B2]

[download]

Then these need to be identified and used in preference to the first combination as that will be the minimum number of records I need to represent all the variants in each of the fields.

This gets more complicated as the number of fields and files being interrogated increases

In reply to Re^2: Most efficient record selection method? by Kraythorne
in thread Most efficient record selection method? by Kraythorne

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