You've asked two questions.
(1) Can "percentage-wise" be used as an adjective.
Yes. "The percentage-wise method of calculating the metric has many advantages."
(2) What's the interpretation of "by one of percentage-wise and optimal gross margin" which is taken from Patent US 7979299 B1.
Part of the issue is that quote has been taken out of it's context. Also, it's missing some of the original punctuation. Here's the original context, as taken from Patent US7979299:
Methods and apparatus for optimizing markdown pricing
CLAIMS(14)
- A method of optimizing scheduling of markdown pricing for one or more related items at a plurality of retail sites, the method comprising:
for each retail site in the plurality of retail sites, identifying a type of related items based, at least in part on, whether markdown schedules for individual items would be substantially similar if optimized separately;
determining which retail sites from the plurality of retail sites have similar metrics, the metrics identifying which retail sites are equally close to selling out the type of related items by one of, percentage-wise and optimal gross margin, given a current price of the type of related items; [NOTE: emphasis added for this question/answer only]
Note that among legal documents, patents are notoriously difficult to interpret. In fact, interpretations of the meanings of patents are often decided in court within the context of an infringement of patent lawsuit!
When the phrase "by one of" is followed by a comma, colon, or "the following", it might suggest a listing of separate items. But other times, not. Let's consider another sentence which may be a bit easier to comprehend:
- "He can make great food by one of, spicy and hot recipes, to which said patent Section 6 does forth suggest patently patent stuff stuff stuff..."
Now does this mean "spicy, hot recipes" or "spicy recipes and hot recipes"? Since we have a list, it must be the latter. But additional sentence complexity can make it more ambiguous. Practically speaking, the answer could very well depend on what is decided in a court of law.
Best Answer
The functional difference between adverbs and adjectives is what they are qualifying or describing, respectively. That is, an adjective gives further information about the associated noun or noun phrase. An adverb, in contrast, qualifies not only verbs (as the name indicates), but also adjectives, other adverbs and even whole clauses.
As you guessed, the word which is modified in your context is the verb to choose. The adverb tells that you do not need to choose a particular weight, but instead can just blindly grab for any one weight. Or, rather, choose arbitrarily.