A TCAM database is partitioned into a plurality of sections. A set of rules to be stored in the TCAM database is analyzed to identify respective subsets of rules that match respective possible bit value combinations corresponding to a subset of bits in the rules, and to identify, in the subsets of rules, two or more subsets that share one or more rules. Then, it is determined whether two or more subsets that include shared rules can be written to a same section in the TCAM database, without exceeding a maximum number of rules that can be written to the same section, when one or more duplicates of one the the shared rules is omitted from the TCAM database. When it is determined that two or more subsets can be written to the same section, the two or more subsets are written to the same section in the TCAM database.