Processing window partitioning and ordering for on-line analytical processing (OLAP) functions

• US 10,353,899 B2
• Filed: 09/14/2016
• Issued: 07/16/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 08/28/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Ackerman, William B., Lin, Eileen T., Meyers, David L., Misra, Shivin S., Zabka, Michael R.
• Primary Examiner(s): Tran, Anhtai V
• Application Number:
  US15/265,366
• Publication Number:
  US 20170060978A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,035 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2379 Updates performed during online database operations; commit processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2455 Query execution
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24554 Unary operations; Data partitioning operations
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/283 Multi-dimensional databases or data warehouses, e.g. MOLAP or ROLAP

Abstract

Provided are techniques for processing window partitioning and ordering for OLAP functions. A prior compare operation is performed by: receiving an input vector for each of one or more attributes of input data that represent one of a partition-by column and an order-by column in a database query; generating a per-attribute comparison vector for each input vector; and producing a single output vector using each per-attribute comparison vector, wherein each value of the single output vector is a Boolean attribute whose value for a given tuple is true if a current value and a most recent prior value of any of the one or more attributes are different.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

performing a prior compare operation by;

receiving an input vector for each of one or more attributes of input data that represent one of a partition-by column and an order-by column in a database query;

generating a per-attribute comparison vector for each input vector; and

producing a single output vector using each per-attribute comparison vector, wherein each value of the single output vector is a Boolean attribute whose value for a given tuple is true if a current value and a most recent prior value of any of the one or more attributes are different; and

in response to receiving a second database query with multiple On-line Analytical Processing (OLAP) functions that each have different partitioning and ordering specifications and that share a sort,

identifying a minimal set of prior compare building blocks with a minimal number of scans over the input data for use by the multiple OLAP functions; and

computing remaining prior compare functions using the minimal set of the prior compare building blocks.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the prior compare operation is used to 1) identify a beginning of a new partition and 2) determine whether values of the one or more attributes have changed.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein each value of the single output vector is a Boolean attribute whose value for a given tuple is false if the current value and the most recent prior value of all of the one or more attributes are identical.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein a Software as a Service (SaaS) is configured to perform method operations.