Interval generation for numeric data

• US 20080005210A1
• Filed: 06/30/2006
• Published: 01/03/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 06/30/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Covington, Clinton D., Getsch, Timothy E.
• Granted Patent: US 7,937,426 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 708/200
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/248 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/26 Visual data mining; Browsing structured data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/283 Multi-dimensional databases or data warehouses, e.g. MOLAP or ROLAP
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9038 Presentation of query results

Abstract

Embodiments of the present invention relate to the generation of intervals from a selection of numeric data. An interval is a set of numeric data that is organized between two numeric values that may include one or both of those numeric values. In an embodiment, a data program 100 receives 502 a selection of data 118. A number of intervals 132 are generated 506 for the selected data set 118. The selected data 118 is organized into the several intervals 132. The intervals 132 are then provided 508 to the user.

Claims

1. A computer readable medium (318), executable on a computing system (300), including at least one tangible medium and encoding a computer program of instructions for executing a computer implemented method (500) for providing intervals, the method (500) comprising:

receiving (502) a selection of data;

receiving (504) a request to provide intervals;

generating (506) two or more intervals, the two or more intervals associated with the data; and

providing (508) the two or more intervals.

2. A computer readable medium defined in claim 1, wherein generating the two or more intervals comprises:

determining the mean of the data; and

determining the standard deviation of the data.

3. A computer readable medium defined in claim 2, further comprising;

determining if there are one or more outliers in the data.

4. A computer readable medium defined in claim 3, wherein determining if there are one or more outliers comprises determining if one or more data values is more than a predetermined number of standard deviations from the mean.

5. A computer readable medium defined in claim 1, wherein generating the two or more intervals comprises:

determining a number of interval divisions for the data.

6. A computer readable medium defined in claim 5, wherein determining a number of interval divisions comprises determining human-understandable intervals.

7. A computer readable medium defined in claim 6, wherein determining human-understandable intervals comprises:

determining a target interval size based on a factor of a standard deviation;

generating two or more human-understandable interval sizes;

comparing the target interval size to the two or more human-understandable interval sizes; and

selecting the human-understandable interval size that is nearest the target interval size.

8. A computer readable medium defined in claim 7, wherein determining human-understandable intervals further comprises:

determining a human-understandable midpoint; and

generating human-understandable intervals by adding multiples of the human-understandable interval size to the midpoint.

9. A computer readable medium defined in claim 8, wherein determining the human-understandable midpoint comprises determining the nearest human-understandable interval separation point.

10. A computer readable medium defined in claim 1, further comprising generating one or more subintervals.

11. In a computer system (300) having a graphical user interface (318) including a display (316) and a user interface selection device (314), a method (800) of providing and selecting from a filter menu (112) on the display (316), the method (800) comprising the steps of:

receiving (802) a selection of data;

receiving (804) a selection for filtering by an interval;

generating (806) two or more intervals;

providing (808) two or more intervals in a filter selection menu, the two or more intervals associated with the selection of data;

receiving (810) a selection of one of the intervals;

filtering (812) by the selected interval; and

providing (814) the filtered data.

12. A method as defined in claim 11, wherein

receiving a selection of interval to filter the selection of data;

and

in response to the selection of an interval, displaying the filtered data associated with the selected interval.

13. A computer readable medium, executable on a computing system, including at least one tangible medium and encoding computer program components (400) for generating intervals, the components (400) comprising:

a user interface component (406) that generates a data display (404), receives a selection of data (405), and receives a selection (423) to generate two or more intervals; and

an interval generation component (412) coupled to the user interface component (406), the interval generation component (412) operable to determine intervals for the selection of data (405) and generate the intervals (414) for display by the user interface component (406).

14. A computer readable medium as defined in claim 13, further comprising:

a filter coupled to the user interface component, the filter operable to filter the selection of data according to the selection of interval.

15. A computer readable medium defined in claim 13, wherein the interval generation component is operable to determine a number of interval divisions for the data.

16. A computer readable medium defined in claim 15, wherein the interval generation component is operable to determine human-understandable intervals.

17. A computer readable medium defined in claim 16, wherein the human-understandable interval has separation points on whole integers and is a factor of the power of ten.

18. A computer readable medium defined in claim 16, wherein the interval generation component is operable to determine a target interval size based on a factor of a standard deviation, generate two or more human-understandable interval sizes, compare the target interval size to the two or more human-understandable interval sizes, select the human-understandable interval size that is nearest the target interval size, determine a human-understandable midpoint, and generate human-understandable intervals by adding multiples of the human-understandable interval size to the midpoint.

19. A computer readable medium defined in claim 18, wherein a user selects the factor of a standard deviation used to generate the two or more human-understandable interval size, and the selected factor of a standard deviation controls the number of intervals generated.

20. A computer readable medium defined in claim 18, wherein in the human-understandable midpoint is the nearest, whole integer value to the mean.