Systems, methods, and apparatuses for populating a table having null values using a predictive query interface

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9753962-B2
Application number	US-201614992925-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 11, 2016
Priority date	Mar 13, 2013
Publication date	Sep 5, 2017
Grant date	Sep 5, 2017

Abstract

Disclosed herein are systems and methods for populating a table having null values using a predictive query interface including means for receiving a tabular dataset from a user as input, the tabular dataset having data values organized as columns and rows; identifying a plurality of null values within the tabular dataset, the null values being dispersed across multiple rows and multiple columns of the tabular dataset; generating indices from the tabular dataset of columns and rows, the indices representing probabilistic relationships between the rows and the columns of the tabular dataset; displaying the tabular dataset as output to the user, the displayed output including the data values depicted as known values and the null values depicted as unknown values; receiving input from the user to populate at least a portion of the unknown values within the displayed tabular dataset with predicted values; querying the indices for the predicted values; and displaying the predicted values as updated output to the user. Other related embodiments are further disclosed.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method in a host organization having at least a processor and a memory therein to execute instructions, the method comprising:
receiving a request at the host organization from a user device to display a tabular dataset;
retrieving the tabular dataset from a database system executing at the host organization;
displaying the tabular dataset as output to the user device, the displayed output including a plurality of data values depicted as known values and a plurality of null values depicted as unknown values;
receiving input from the user device to populate the tabular dataset to a specified fill percentage;
querying the database system for predicted values to populate a portion of the null values of the tabular dataset, wherein querying the database system comprises issuing a PREDICT command term and passing as a parameter one or more specified columns of the tabular dataset to be predicted;
receiving a distribution for every one of the plurality of null values within the tabular dataset responsive to querying the indices for the predicted values;
calculating a credible interval for each distribution received;
populating the portion of the null values of the tabular dataset with the predicted values until the specified fill percentage is reached; and
displaying the tabular dataset having the predicted values populated therein as updated output to the user device by displaying selected ones of the predicted values that correspond to a calculated credible interval in excess of a minimum threshold.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving the tabular dataset from the user device as input, the tabular dataset having data values organized as columns and rows;
identifying the plurality of null values within the tabular dataset, the null values being dispersed across multiple rows and multiple columns of the tabular dataset;
generating indices from the tabular dataset of columns and rows, the indices representing probabilistic relationships between the rows and the columns of the tabular dataset; and
storing the indices within the database system of the host organization.

3. The method of claim 1 :
wherein querying the database system for the predicted values comprises constructing a query for the database system specifying at least (i) the PREDICT command term, (ii) the one or more specified columns of the tabular dataset to be predicted, and (iii) one or more column name=value pairs specifying column names to be fixed and corresponding values by which to fix the column names.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
generating a predictive record set responsive to the querying;
wherein the predictive record set comprises a plurality of elements therein, each of the plurality of elements specifying a value for each of the one or more specified columns of the tabular dataset to be predicted per row of the tabular dataset; and
returning the predictive record set responsive to the query.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein querying the database system comprises issuing the query to a Predictive Query Language Application Programming Interface (PreQL API) exposed by the host organization by passing a PreQL query to the database system via the PreQL API, the PreQL query having a query syntax of:
the PREDICT command term as a required term;
a required TARGET term specifying the one or more specified columns of the tabular dataset to be predicted;
a required WHERE term that specifies column names to be fixed and the values by which to fix them as the one or more column name=value pairs, wherein the required WHERE term restricts output of the query to a predictive record set having returned elements that are probabilistically related to the one or more columns to be fixed and the corresponding values by which to fix the column names as specified; and
an optional FROM term specifying the tabular dataset as the data source to be queried within the database system.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving a confidence indicator for every one of the plurality of null values within the tabular dataset responsive to querying the database system for the predicted values, the confidence indicator based on a comparison of known results corresponding to known and non-null values within the dataset with the predicted values; and
wherein displaying the tabular dataset having the predicted values populated therein as updated output to the user device further includes displaying the selected ones of the predicted values which correspond to the confidence indicator being in excess of a default minimum confidence threshold or a user specified minimum confidence threshold when present.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein displaying the tabular dataset further comprises:
displaying the known values using black text within cells of a spreadsheet;
displaying the unknown values as blank cells within the spreadsheet; and
displaying the predicted values using colored or grayscale text within the cells of the spreadsheet.

8. The method of claim 1 :
wherein displaying the tabular dataset having the predicted values populated therein as updated output to the user device comprises displaying the updated output within a spreadsheet or table at a Graphical User Interface (GUI);
wherein the known values are displayed as populated cells within the spreadsheet or table at the GUI in a first type of text;
wherein predicted values are displayed as populated cells within the spreadsheet or table at the GUI in a second type of text discernable from the first type of text corresponding to the known values; and
wherein any remaining unknown values are displayed as empty cells within the spreadsheet or table at the GUI.

9. The method of claim 1 :
wherein displaying the tabular dataset having the predicted values populated therein as updated output to the user device comprises displaying the tabular dataset and the predicted values within a spreadsheet or table at a Graphical User Interface (GUI);
wherein the GUI further comprises a slider interface controllable by the user to specify the fill percentage at GUI displayed to the user device; and
wherein receiving the input from the user device to populate the tabular dataset to the specified fill percentage comprises receiving the specified fill percentage as input from the user device via the slider interface.

10. The method of claim 9 , further comprising:
receiving second input from the user device indicating a minimum acceptable degree of uncertainty; and
wherein populating the portion of the null values of the tabular dataset with the predicted values until the specified fill percentage is reached comprises populating the portion of the null values of the tabular dataset with predicted values having a confidence indicator returned by the query in excess of the minimum acceptable degree of uncertainty as specified via the second input from the user device.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the specified fill percentage corresponds to a percentage of known values within the tabular dataset from a sum of all null values and all known values for the tabular dataset.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein the input for the specified fill percentage controllable by the user is restricted to a range encompassing a minimum fill percentage based on a quantity of the known values within the tabular dataset and a maximum degree of uncertainty necessary to populate the displayed tabular dataset to the specified fill percentage as specified via the input from the user device.

13. The method of claim 12 , further comprising:
populating the tabular dataset to a 1

Assignees

• Salesforce Com Inc

Inventors

• Petschulat Cap Christian
• Jonas Eric Michael

Classifications

• G06F40/18

  of spreadsheets (form-filling G06F40/174) · CPC title

• G06F16/2458

  Special types of queries, e.g. statistical queries, fuzzy queries or distributed queries · CPC title

• G06F16/244

  Grouping and aggregation · CPC title

• G06F17/18

  for evaluating statistical data {, e.g. average values, frequency distributions, probability functions, regression analysis (forecasting specially adapted for a specific administrative, business or logistic context G06Q10/04)} · CPC title

• G06F16/2445

  Data retrieval commands; View definitions · CPC title