Amorphous data query formulation

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2015134676-A1
Application number	US-201314076752-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Nov 11, 2013
Priority date	Nov 11, 2013
Publication date	May 14, 2015
Grant date	—

Abstract

A view of a data cube is produced, including a set of data entities available from the data cube. Information is presented, as metadata associated with the data cube, to guide a selection of a subset of data entities. A selection of a subset is received. A sub-query is constructed, configured according to a configuration standard adopted in the data cube, and to extract a set of records containing the selected subset of data entities. Using the sub-query on the data cube, the set of records is extracted as an intermediate set that conforms to the configuration standard. The intermediate set is normalized with a second intermediate set extracted from a second data cube using a second sub-query and conforming to a second configuration standard. The normalizing results in a normalized result set. The query is executed on the normalized result set to produce an answer to the query.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A method for amorphous data query formulation, the method comprising:
producing, using a processor and a memory, a view of a data cube, wherein the data cube is a member of a set of data cubes selected to answer a query, and wherein the view comprises a set of data entities available from the data cube; presenting, as metadata associated with the data cube, information to guide a selection of a subset of data entities from the set of data entities; receiving a selection of a subset of the set of data entities; constructing a sub-query, the sub-query configured according to a configuration standard adopted in the data cube, the sub-query configured to extract a set of records containing the selected subset of data entities; extracting, using the sub-query on the data cube, the set of records, the set of records forming an intermediate result set, wherein the intermediate result set conforms to the configuration standard of the data cube; normalizing the intermediate result set with a second intermediate result set extracted from a second data cube using a second sub-query, wherein the second intermediate result set conforms to a second configuration standard, the normalizing resulting in a normalized result set; and executing the query on the normalized result set to produce an answer to the query.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the normalizing avoids normalizing the data cube and the second data cube, further comprising:
selecting one of the configuration standard and the second configuration standard, forming a selected configuration standard to use in the normalizing, such that the selected configuration standard causes the normalizing to occur at a lower than a threshold computational cost.

3 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
constructing a second sub-query, the second sub-query configured according to the second configuration standard adopted in the second data cube, the second sub-query configured to extract a second set of records containing a selected subset of data entities from the second set of data entities.

4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the information comprises information corresponding to a reliability of data entities in the data cube.

5 . The method of claim 4 , wherein the reliability of the data entities is indicated by one of (i) an age of the data cube, and (ii) a provenance of a source that supplied the data entities in the data cube.

6 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the information comprises information corresponding to a combinability of a data entity from the set of data entities with a second data cube.

7 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the information comprises information corresponding to state of storage of the data cube.

8 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving the query from a user; and receiving an input to select a set of data cubes from a data store, the set of data cubes including the data cube and a second data cube.

9 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
relating the view of the data cube to a second view of a second data cube, the second data cube comprising a second set of data entities, wherein the relating associates a data entity in the set of data entities to an entity in the second set of data entities.

10 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the data cube is a multi-dimensional data structure containing a second set of data entities, wherein the set of data entities includes the second set of data entities and another set of data entities computable from the second set of data entities using a data entity in a second data cube.

11 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
storing the normalized result set in a data store as a third data cube.

12 . A computer program product comprising one or more computer-readable tangible storage devices and computer-readable program instructions which are stored on the one or more storage devices and when executed by one or more processors, perform the method of claim 1 .

13 . A computer system comprising one or more processors, one or more computer-readable memories, one or more computer-readable tangible storage devices and program instructions which are stored on the one or more storage devices for execution by the one or more processors via the one or more memories and when executed by the one or more processors perform the method of claim 1 .

14 . A computer program product for amorphous data query formulation, the computer program product comprising:
one or more computer-readable tangible storage devices; program instructions, stored on at least one of the one or more storage devices, to produce, using a processor and a memory, a view of a data cube, wherein the data cube is a member of a set of data cubes selected to answer a query, and wherein the view comprises a set of data entities available from the data cube; program instructions, stored on at least one of the one or more storage devices, to present, as metadata associated with the data cube, information to guide a selection of a subset of data entities from the set of data entities; program instructions, stored on at least one of the one or more storage devices, to receive a selection of a subset of the set of data entities; program instructions, stored on at least one of the one or more storage devices, to construct a sub-query, the sub-query configured according to a configuration standard adopted in the data cube, the sub-query configured to extract a set of records containing the selected subset of data entities; program instructions, stored on at least one of the one or more storage devices, to extract, using the sub-query on the data cube, the set of records, the set of records forming an intermediate result set, wherein the intermediate result set conforms to the configuration standard of the data cube; program instructions, stored on at least one of the one or more storage devices, to normalize the intermediate result set with a second intermediate result set extracted from a second data cube using a second sub-query, wherein the second intermediate result set conforms to a second configuration standard, the normalizing resulting in a normalized result set; and program instructions, stored on at least one of the one or more storage devices, to execute the query on the normalized result set to produce an answer to the query.

15 . The computer program product of claim 14 , wherein the program instructions to normalize avoid normalizing the data cube and the second data cube, further comprising:
program instructions, stored on at least one of the one or more storage devices, to select one of the configuration standard and the second configuration standard, forming a selected configuration standard to use in the normalizing, such that the selected configuration standard causes the normalizing to occur at a lower than a threshold computational cost.

16 . The computer program product of claim 14 , further comprising:
program instructions, stored on at least one of the one or more storage devices, to construct a second sub-query, the second sub-query configured according to the second configuration standard adopted in the second data cube, the second sub-query configured to extract a second set of records containing a selected subset of data entities from the second set of data entities.

17 . The computer program product of claim 14 , wherein the information comprises information corresponding to a reliability of data entities in the data cube.

18 . The computer program produc

Assignees

• IBM

Inventors

• Abuelsaad Tamer E
• Boss Gregory Jensen
• Trim Craig Matthew
• Wong Albert Tien-Yuen

Classifications

• G06F17/30401 Primary

  Physics · mapped topic

• G06F16/24535

  of sub-queries or views · CPC title

• G06F16/2452 Primary

  Query translation · CPC title