Method and system for generating a serializing portion of a record identifier

• US 20050091293A1
• Filed: 06/09/2004
• Published: 04/28/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 10/24/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SAP SE
• Original Assignee: SAP AG (SAP SE)
• Inventors: Muno, Andreas, Fuchs, Gerhard
• Granted Patent: US 7,660,801 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 708/160
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/30 of unstructured textual data document management systems G06F16/93
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/944 Business related
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99943 Generating database or data structure, e.g. via user interface

Abstract

Embodiments of the present invention relate generally to software for automatically generating alphabetic or alphanumeric representations for assigning as serializing portions of record identifiers.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

invoking logic to generate a serializing portion of a record identifier;

consulting a rule that maps, to numbers, alphabetic, alphanumeric, or numeric ranges within intervals defined by respective start and end points;

determining a next number within a cumulative numeric range covered by the rule intervals;

determining in which interval of the rule the next number lies;

converting the next number to a corresponding alphabetic, alphanumeric or numeric representation defined within the interval; and

assigning the alphabetic, alphanumeric or numeric representation as the serializing portion.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the start and end points are combinations of letters.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the start and end points are combinations of letters and numbers.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the start and end points are combinations of numbers.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the converting comprises performing a modulo operation.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the converting comprises manipulating the next number in terms of a value assigned to a type of character in a definition of the interval in which the next number lies.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the manipulating comprises dividing the next number by a value corresponding to the type of character.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the value is 26 if the type of character is a letter.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the value is 10 if the type of character is a number.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein a modulo operation is applied to a result of the dividing, and if the type of character is a letter, a result of the modulo operation is mapped to a corresponding letter of the alphabet.

11. A method comprising:

executing computer code that constructs a runtime mapping based on a rule that associates a range of alphabetic or alphanumeric combinations with a range of numbers;

determining a next number within the range of numbers;

consulting the runtime mapping to determine an alphabetic or alphanumeric representation within the range of alphabetic or alphanumeric combinations corresponding to the next number; and

assigning the alphabetic or alphanumeric representation as a serializing portion of a record identifier.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the rule defines a start point and an end point of an interval in terms of alphabetic or alphanumeric combinations.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the computer code converts each of the start point and the end point to a number.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein the serializing portion is a component of a composite record identifier.

15. A machine-readable medium comprising computer-executable instructions to:

invoke logic to generate a serializing portion of a record identifier;

consult a rule that maps, to numbers, alphabetic, alphanumeric, or numeric ranges within intervals defined by respective start and end points;

determine a next number within a cumulative numeric range covered by the rule intervals;

determine in which interval of the rule the next number lies;

convert the next number to a corresponding alphabetic, alphanumeric or numeric representation defined within the interval; and

assign the alphabetic, alphanumeric or numeric representation as the serializing portion.

16. The machine-readable medium of claim 15, wherein the start and end points are combinations of letters.

17. The machine-readable medium of claim 15, wherein the start and end points are combinations of letters and numbers.

18. The machine-readable medium of claim 15, wherein the start and end points are combinations of numbers.

19. A machine-readable medium comprising computer-executable instructions to:

construct a runtime mapping based on a rule that associates a range of alphabetic or alphanumeric combinations with a range of numbers;

determine a next number within the range of numbers;

consult the runtime mapping to determine an alphabetic or alphanumeric representation within the range of alphabetic or alphanumeric combinations corresponding to the next number; and

assign the alphabetic or alphanumeric representation as a serializing portion of a record identifier

20. The machine-readable medium of claim 19, wherein the rule defines a start point and an end point of an interval in terms of alphabetic or alphanumeric combinations.