Automatic selection of templates for extraction of data from electronic documents

One or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media storing one or more sequences of instructions which when executed cause one or more processors to execute:

• programmatically receiving an input electronic document and a first set of candidate templates;
• identifying a plurality of attributes from a top-third portion of the input electronic document;
• for each particular candidate template from among candidate templates in the first set of candidate templates, calculating a template similarity ratio value that represents a similarity of the particular candidate template to the input electronic document, resulting in digitally storing a plurality of template similarity ratios;
• programmatically ranking the candidate templates according to the template similarity ratios;
• matching the candidate templates to the input electronic document, resulting in generating a normalized similarity score for each particular candidate template from among the candidate templates;
• determining differences in normalized similarity scores of successive pairs of the candidate templates;
• when a particular difference in the normalized similarity scores of a particular pair of the candidate templates exceeds a specified threshold value, establishing a breaking point of the candidate templates at the particular pair;
• forming a second set of candidate templates by selecting, from among the candidate templates, only those candidate templates that are ranked above the breaking point;
• extracting data from the input electronic document using the second set of candidate templates.