Method and apparatus for processing free-format data
First Claim
1. A method of processing free-format data stored in a computing system, comprising the steps of examining elements of the data to determine attributes of the data, by examining the content of the elements and the contextual relationships of elements to each other, to determine semantic and syntactic information (attributes) about the data, producing additional data relating to this information, in the form of a text object which includes pointer means enabling access to the elements of the free-format data, and the additional data being accessible by a query processing means to provide answers to queries relating to the semantic and syntactic information about the data and/or to access the data to manipulate the data.
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Abstract
A method and apparatus for processing free-format data (301) to produce a “text object” associated with the free-format data. The text object comprises a plurality of “component nodes” (302-312) containing attribute-type identifiers for elements of the free-format text and other data facilitating access to the text object to obtain information and/or change or add the free-format data. This arrangement obviates the need for the provision of separate database fields for each element of the information. Free-format data can therefore be processed in a similar manner to the way a human being processes free-format data. All elements can be accessed via the constructed text object.
141 Citations
53 Claims
- 1. A method of processing free-format data stored in a computing system, comprising the steps of examining elements of the data to determine attributes of the data, by examining the content of the elements and the contextual relationships of elements to each other, to determine semantic and syntactic information (attributes) about the data, producing additional data relating to this information, in the form of a text object which includes pointer means enabling access to the elements of the free-format data, and the additional data being accessible by a query processing means to provide answers to queries relating to the semantic and syntactic information about the data and/or to access the data to manipulate the data.
- 20. A processing system for processing free-format data stored in a computing system, the apparatus including means for examining elements of the data to determine attributes of the data, by examining the content of the elements and the contextual relationships of elements to each other, to determine semantic and syntactic information (attributes) about the data, means for producing additional data relating to this information, in the form of a text object which includes pointer means enabling access to the elements of the free-format data, and a query processing means which is arranged to access the additional data to provide answers to queries relating to the semantic and syntactic information about the data and/or to access the data to manipulate the data.
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40. A method of enabling access to free-format data stored in a computing system, including a plurality of free-format data records, comprising the steps of storing additional data relating to semantic and syntactic information (attributes) about the data for each data record, the additional data being in the form of a text object associated with each data record, the text object including pointer means enabling access to elements of each free-format data record, the additional data being accessible by a query processing means to provide answers to queries relating to the semantic and syntactic information about the data and/or to access the data to manipulate the data.
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41. A processing system for enabling access to free-format data stored in a computing system, including a plurality of free-format data records, the processing system comprising additional data relating to semantic and syntactic information (attributes) about the data for each data record, stored and accessible by the processing system, the additional data being in the form of a text object associated with each data record, the text object including pointer means enabling access to elements of each free-format data record, and a query processing means arranged to access the additional data to provide answers to queries relating to the semantic and syntactic information about the data and/or to access the data to manipulate the data.
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42. A method of enabling access to free-format data stored in a computing system, including a plurality of free-format data records, comprising the steps of storing additional data relating to semantic and syntactic information (attributes) about the data of each data record, the additional data being in the form of a text object index which includes attribute—
- type identifiers for elements of each data record and pointers to each data record, the text object index being accessible by a query processing means to provide answers to queries relating to the semantic and syntactic information about the data and/or to access the data to manipulate the data.
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43. A processing system for enabling access to free-format data stored in a computing system, including a plurality of free-format data records, the processing system comprising the additional data relating to semantic and syntactic information (attributes) about the free-format data for each data record, the additional data being in the form of a text object index which includes attribute type identifiers for elements of each data record and pointers to each data record, and a query processing means arranged to access the additional data to provide answers to queries relating to the semantic and syntactic information about the data and/or to access the data to manipulate the data.
- 46. A processing system for processing free-format data stored in a computing system, comprising means for examining elements of the data to determine attributes of the data, by examining the content of the elements and the contextual relationship of elements to each other, to determine semantic and syntactic information (attributes) about the data, and a query processing means for utilising this information to provide answers to queries relating to the semantic and syntactic information about the data and/or to access the data.
- 48. A method of processing free-format data stored in a computing system, comprising the steps of examining elements of the data to determine attributes of the data, by examining the content of the elements and the contextual relationships of elements to each other, to determine semantic and syntactic information (attributes) about the data, and querying the data using this information to provide answers to queries relating to the semantic and syntactic information about the data and/or to access the data.
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52. A method of processing a plurality of records of free-format data stored in a computing system, comprising the steps of, for each record, examining elements of the data to determine attributes of the data, by examining the content of the elements and the contextual relationships of elements to each other, to determine semantic and syntactic information (attributes) about each record, and producing virtual data fields associated with each record enabling access to this information and the associated elements, whereby each record is provided with associated virtual data fields enabling access to semantic and syntactic information about that record and also access to the associated elements.
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53. A processing system for processing free-format data records stored in a computing system, comprising means for examining elements of the data of each record to determine attributes of the data, by examining the content of the elements and the contextual relationship of elements to each other, to determine semantic and syntactic information (attributes) about the data, and means for producing virtual data fields associated with each record enabling access to this information and the associated elements, whereby each record is provided with associated virtual data fields enabling access to semantic and syntactic information about that record and also access to the associated elements.
Specification