A device and a method are provided. Approximate match operations are performed for each of a group of attributes for each of a group of tuples with respect to a query to create a respective ranking for each of the group of attributes. The rankings of the group of attributes are combined to provide a ranking score for each of the group of tuples. Data representing a ranking score of each of the group of tuples is generated according to a position of a respective ranking of each one of the group of tuples for a first k positions of the ranking. K of top ranked ones of the group of tuples are identified based at least in part on the generated data, wherein a number of the group of tuples is n and k