A system and method is provided for determining characteristics of sets of organized items.In an illustrative implementation, a first set of organized items as a compare-from location is identified, and a second set of organized items as a compare-to location is also identified. In an illustrative operation, a recursive intrinsic reference representing the first set of organized items is determined so that the recursive intrinsic reference is an intrinsic reference to an item containing a second intrinsic reference. A discrepancy is determined between the first set of organized items and the second set of organized items using the recursive intrinsic reference.