Finding data in connected corpuses using examples

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10140366-B2
Application number	US-201514659303-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 16, 2015
Priority date	Apr 10, 2012
Publication date	Nov 27, 2018
Grant date	Nov 27, 2018

Abstract

In one embodiment, datasets are stored in a catalog. The datasets are enriched by establishing relationships among the domains in different datasets. A user searches for relevant datasets by providing examples of the domains of interest. The system identifies datasets corresponding to the user-provided examples. The system them identifies connected subsets of the datasets that are directly linked or indirectly linked through other domains. The user provides known relationship examples to filter the connected subsets and to identify the connected subsets that are most relevant to the user's query. The selected connected subsets may be further analyzed by business intelligence/analytics to create pivot tables or to process the data.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A data processing system for searching datasets by examples, the system comprising:
a processor; and
a memory coupled to the processor, the memory configured to store program instructions executable by the processor to cause the data processing system to:
receive a collection of values from a user, each value in the collection of values having a data type which is to serve as a basis for searching a pool of data resources for corresponding groups of datasets, the pool of data resources being distinct from the received collection of values;
identify a data type for each of the values;
identify datasets that correspond to the data types, each identified dataset comprising one or more of the data types identified in the collection of values;
identify relationships among the datasets, the relationships corresponding to links between similar data types in different datasets; and
provide a list of proposed groups of datasets, wherein the datasets within each proposed group are linked to each other through one or more relationships.

2. The data processing system of claim 1 , further comprising: receive an example value set from the user, the example value set corresponding to a known relationship between two or more data types.

3. The data processing system of claim 2 , further comprising: list a second proposed group of datasets for the user, wherein the datasets within the second proposed group include the example value set.

4. The data processing system of claim 1 , further comprising: receive a user selection of one of the proposed dataset groups.

5. The data processing system of claim 4 , further comprising: combine the datasets within the selected proposed dataset group into a new dataset.

6. The data processing system of claim 4 , further comprising: combine subsets of the datasets within the selected proposed dataset group into a new dataset.

7. The data processing system of claim 1 , wherein the list of proposed groups of datasets are linked to each other through the relationships to intermediate datasets that do not have data types corresponding to the values received from the user.

8. The data processing system of claim 1 , wherein the list of proposed groups of datasets comprises datasets that have overlapping data types corresponding to the values received from the user.

9. The data processing system of claim 1 , further comprising: rank the list of proposed groups of datasets, the ranking based upon weights assigned to one or more of the data types, datasets, and values received from the user.

10. A method for facilitating searching datasets by examples, the method comprising: performing, by one or more processors in a computer system:
identifying a collection of domains corresponding to a collection of values; identifying datasets corresponding to at least one of the domains;
identifying relationships among the datasets, the relationships corresponding to links between similar domains in different datasets;
identifying groups of datasets, wherein the datasets within each proposed group are linked to each other through one or more relationships;
receiving an example value set, each value in the example value set having a data type which is to serve as a basis for searching the groups of datasets and the example value set corresponding to a known relationship between two or more domains; and
identifying one or more proposed groups of datasets, wherein each identified proposed group of datasets comprises at least one data type corresponding to a value in the example value set, and wherein values of the example value set are found within the datasets of the proposed groups.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein all of the values of the example value set are found within the datasets of the proposed groups.

12. The method of claim 10 , wherein at least one of the values of the example value set is found within the datasets of the proposed groups.

13. The method of claim 10 , further comprising: receiving a user selection of one of the proposed dataset groups.

14. The method of claim 13 , further comprising: combining the datasets within the selected dataset group into a new dataset.

15. The method of claim 13 , further comprising: combining subsets of the datasets within the selected dataset group into a new dataset.

16. The method of claim 10 , wherein the datasets in the proposed groups are linked to each other through the relationships to intermediate datasets that do not include the domains in the collection of domains.

17. The method of claim 10 , wherein the datasets in the proposed groups comprise datasets that have overlapping domains corresponding to the collection of values.

18. The method of claim 10 , further comprising: ranking the proposed groups of datasets.

19. A computer-readable storage medium storing computer-executable instructions that when executed by at least one processor cause the at least one processor to perform a method for identifying groups of datasets, the method comprising:
identify a collection of data types corresponding to a collection of values; identify datasets corresponding to at least one of the data types identified in the collection of values;
identify relationships among the datasets, the relationships corresponding to links between similar data types in different datasets;
identify groups of datasets, wherein the datasets within each proposed group are linked to each other through one or more relationships; receive an example value set from the user, each value in the example value set having a data type which is to serve as a basis for searching the groups of datasets and the example value set corresponding to a known relationship between two or more data types; and
identify one or more proposed groups of datasets, wherein each identified proposed group of datasets comprises at least one data type corresponding to a value in the example value set, and wherein values of the example value set are found within the datasets of the proposed groups.

20. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 19 , wherein the method further comprises: receive a user selection of one of the proposed dataset groups; and combining subsets of the datasets within the selected dataset group into a new dataset.

Assignees

• Microsoft Technology Licensing Llc

Inventors

• Platt John C
• Chaudhuri Surajit
• Novik Lev
• Meijer Henricus Johannes Maria
• Hudis Efim
• Mukerjee Kunal
• Hays Christopher Alan

Classifications

• G06F16/634 Primary

  Query by example, e.g. query by humming · CPC title

• G06F16/2465 Primary

  Query processing support for facilitating data mining operations in structured databases · CPC title

• G06F16/284

  Relational databases · CPC title

• G06F16/24578

  using ranking · CPC title

• G06F16/9535

  Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation · CPC title