1. A method for managing an archive for determining approximate matches associated with strings occurring in records, the method including: processing records to determine a set of string representations that correspond to strings occurring in the records; generating, for each of at least some of the string representations in the set, a plurality of close representations that are each generated from at least some of the same characters in the string; and storing entries in an archive that each represent a potential approximate match between at least two strings based on their respective close representations.