Interpreting invalid data as valid data

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10747747-B2
Application number	US-201414567163-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 11, 2014
Priority date	Dec 11, 2014
Publication date	Aug 18, 2020
Grant date	Aug 18, 2020

Abstract

Provided are techniques for interpreting invalid data that is a portion of a data set as valid data. A request is received to convert data from a first format to a second format for an application, wherein the data is a portion of a data set. It is determined that the data is invalid, wherein the invalid data cannot be processed by the application in the first format. It is determined whether the invalid data is to be interpreted as valid based on a flag. In response to determining that the invalid data is to be interpreted as valid, setting the invalid data to a new value in the second format that can be processed by the application.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A computer program product, the computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium having program code embodied therewith, the program code executable by at least one processor to perform:
setting, by the at least one processor, a flag to indicate one of that invalid data is to be interpreted as valid data and that a conversion exception is to be thrown, wherein the flag is set for a query by an application;
receiving, by the at least one processor, a request to convert data in a database from a first format to a second format for the application, wherein the data is a portion of a data set that includes other data that has been determined to be valid data;
determining, by the at least one processor, that the data is invalid data, wherein the invalid data is corrupted data that cannot be converted to the second format and cannot be processed by the application in the first format;
checking, by the at least one processor, the flag;
in response to the flag indicating that the invalid data is to be interpreted as valid data,
converting, by the at least one processor, the invalid data to a new value in the second format to form the valid data, wherein a pre-defined specification provides rules for the conversion of the invalid data to the valid data, and wherein the new value is one of a valid value and a NULL value that can be processed by the application; and
returning, by the at least one processor, the valid data; and

in response to the flag indicating that the conversion exception is to be thrown, issuing, by the at least one processor, an indication that the conversion exception has been thrown.

2. The computer program product of claim 1 , wherein a new flag is set for the application using a connection property to set the flag on a data source driver.

3. The computer program product of claim 1 , wherein the new value is a different value that allows conversion of the data from the first format to the second format.

4. The computer program product of claim 1 , wherein the program code is executable by the at least one processor to perform:
receiving the query with a new keyword added to indicate that invalid data in a column of a table is to be treated as the NULL value.

5. The computer program product of claim 1 , wherein the data is Large Object (LOB) data.

6. The computer program product of claim 1 , wherein the program code is executable by the at least one processor to perform:
receiving a new request to convert data from binary format to packed decimal format.

7. A computer system, comprising:
one or more processors, one or more computer-readable memories and one or more computer-readable, tangible storage devices; and
program instructions, stored on at least one of the one or more computer-readable, tangible storage devices for execution by at least one of the one or more processors via at least one of the one or more memories, to perform operations, the operations comprising:
setting a flag to indicate one of that invalid data is to be interpreted as valid data and that a conversion exception is to be thrown, wherein the flag is set for a query by an application;
receiving a request to convert data in a database from a first format to a second format for the application, wherein the data is a portion of a data set that includes other data that has been determined to be valid data;
determining that the data is invalid data, wherein the invalid data is corrupted data that cannot be converted to the second format and cannot be processed by the application in the first format;
checking the flag;
in response to the flag indicating that the invalid data is to be interpreted as valid data,
converting the invalid data to a new value in the second format to form the valid data, wherein a pre-defined specification provides rules for the conversion of the invalid data to the valid data, and wherein the new value is one of a valid value and a NULL value that can be processed by the application; and
returning the valid data; and

in response to the flag indicating that the conversion exception is to be thrown, issuing an indication that the conversion exception has been thrown.

8. The computer system of claim 7 , wherein a new flag is set for the application using a connection property to set the flag on a data source driver.

9. The computer system of claim 7 , wherein the new value is a different value that allows conversion of the data from the first format to the second format.

10. The computer system of claim 7 , wherein the operations further comprise:
receiving the query with a new keyword added to indicate that invalid data in a column of a table is to be treated as the NULL value.

11. The computer system of claim 7 , wherein the data is Large Object (LOB) data.

12. The computer system of claim 7 , wherein the operations further comprise:
receiving a new request to convert data from binary format to packed decimal format.

Assignees

• Charlet Kyle J
• Hite Kevin D
• Tran Richard V
• IBM

Inventors

• Charlet Kyle J
• Hite Kevin D
• Tran Richard V

Classifications

• G06F16/245

  Query processing · CPC title

• G06F16/254

  Extract, transform and load [ETL] procedures, e.g. ETL data flows in data warehouses · CPC title

• G06F16/258

  Data format conversion from or to a database · CPC title

• G06F16/2365 Primary

  Ensuring data consistency and integrity · CPC title