Method for validating equivalent data structures

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9672018-B2
Application number	US-201514708084-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 8, 2015
Priority date	Aug 10, 2010
Publication date	Jun 6, 2017
Grant date	Jun 6, 2017

Abstract

Embodiments of the invention relate to a method, system, and computer program product for validating a data structure, comprising: responsive to identifying a data structure in a first programming language, identifying an equivalent data structure in a second programming language; comparing a data definition of the data structure with a data definition of the equivalent data structure; determining an incompatibility between a compared data definition of the data structure and a compared data definition of the equivalent data structure; and responsive to determining an incompatibility, identifying a rule defining an action to be taken in order to correct the incompatibility.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method, comprising:
comparing a data definition of a data structure identified in a first programming language with a data definition of an equivalent data structure identified in a second programming language;
determining whether there is an incompatibility between a compared data definition of the data structure and a compared data definition of the equivalent data structure by comparing characteristics of all data fields in a generated assembler data structure of the first programming language corresponding to the data structure in the first programming language and corresponding data fields in a generated assembler data structure of the second programming language corresponding to the equivalent data structure in the second programming language, wherein the generated assembler data structures of the first and the second programming languages are allocated in memory;
responsive to determining that there is an incompatibility, generating and communicating an alert to a mitigation component to identify a rule which defines an action to be taken in order to correct the incompatibility, wherein a messaging component and a rendering component reports the action to a user via a graphical user interface; and
responsive to determining that there is no incompatibility, generating a message that the data structure in the first programming language and the equivalent data structure in the second programming language are synchronized, and communicating the message to the messaging component to display via the graphical user interface.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein identification of the equivalent data structure further comprises identifying whether the equivalent data structure performs an equivalent function as the data structure.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the incompatibility is identified as an error in a field type and an associated characteristic of the data structure when compared to an identical field type in the equivalent data structure.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the determined incompatibility includes fields of the data structure declared in one order in the first programming language and declared in another order in the equivalent data structure in the second programming language.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the determined incompatibility includes fields of the data structure that are declared in a correct order in the first programming language but have inconsistent declared character lengths.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the determined incompatibility includes fields of the data structure that are present in the first programming language but are not present in the equivalent data structure in the second programming language.

7. A system, comprising:
a memory; and
a processor coupled to the memory, wherein the processor performs operations, the operations comprising:
comparing a data definition of a data structure identified in a first programming language with a data definition of an equivalent data structure identified in a second programming language;
determining whether there is an incompatibility between a compared data definition of the data structure and a compared data definition of the equivalent data structure by comparing characteristics of all data fields in a generated assembler data structure of the first programming language corresponding to the data structure in the first programming language and corresponding data fields in a generated assembler data structure of the second programming language corresponding to the equivalent data structure in the second programming language, wherein the generated assembler data structures of the first and the second programming languages are allocated in memory;
responsive to determining that there is an incompatibility, generating and communicating an alert to a mitigation component to identify a rule which defines an action to be taken in order to correct the incompatibility, wherein a messaging component and a rendering component reports the action to a user via a graphical user interface; and
responsive to determining that there is no incompatibility, generating a message that the data structure in the first programming language and the equivalent data structure in the second programming language are synchronized, and communicating the message to the messaging component to display via the graphical user interface.

8. The system of claim 7 , wherein identification of the equivalent data structure further comprises identifying whether the equivalent data structure performs an equivalent function as the data structure.

9. The system of claim 7 , wherein the incompatibility is identified as an error in a field type and an associated characteristic of the data structure when compared to an identical field type in the equivalent data structure.

10. The system of claim 7 , wherein the determined incompatibility includes fields of the data structure declared in one order in the first programming language and declared in another order in the equivalent data structure in the second programming language.

11. The system of claim 7 , wherein the determined incompatibility includes fields of the data structure that are declared in a correct order in the first programming language but have inconsistent declared character lengths.

12. The system of claim 7 , wherein the determined incompatibility includes fields of the data structure that are present in the first programming language but are not present in the equivalent data structure in the second programming language.

13. A computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer readable storage medium having computer readable program code embodied therewith, wherein the computer readable program code is executable by a processor to cause the processor to perform operations, the operations comprising:
comparing a data definition of a data structure identified in a first programming language with a data definition of an equivalent data structure identified in a second programming language;
determining whether there is an incompatibility between a compared data definition of the data structure and a compared data definition of the equivalent data structure by comparing characteristics of all data fields in a generated assembler data structure of the first programming language corresponding to the data structure in the first programming language and corresponding data fields in a generated assembler data structure of the second programming language corresponding to the equivalent data structure in the second programming language, wherein the generated assembler data structures of the first and the second programming languages are allocated in memory;
responsive to determining that there is an incompatibility, generating and communicating an alert to a mitigation component to identify a rule which defines an action to be taken in order to correct the incompatibility, wherein a messaging component and a rendering component reports the action to a user via a graphical user interface; and
responsive to determining that there is no incompatibility, generating a message that the data structure in the first programming language and the equivalent data structure in the second programming language are synchronized, and communicating the message to the messaging component to display via the graphical user interface.

14. The computer program product of claim 13 , wherein identification of the equivalent data structure further comprises identifying whether the equivalent data structure performs an equivalent function as the data structure.

15. The computer program pr

Assignees

• IBM

Inventors

• Harman David John
• Johnson Brian
• Robinson Alan Clive
• Wright Andrew

Classifications

• G06F16/2365

  Ensuring data consistency and integrity · CPC title

• G06F16/00

  Information retrieval; Database structures therefor; File system structures therefor · CPC title

• G06F8/437 Primary

  Type checking · CPC title

• G06F8/10

  Requirements analysis; Specification techniques · CPC title

• G06F17/30371

  Physics · mapped topic