Data Structure And Management System For A Superset Of Relational Databases

• US 20080027980A1
• Filed: 08/13/2007
• Published: 01/31/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 10/21/2003
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: United Parcel Service Of America Incorporated (United Parcel Service Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: United Parcel Service Of America Incorporated (United Parcel Service Incorporated)
• Inventors: Owens, Timothy, Harrison, Bruce
• Application Number:
  US11/838,010
• Publication Number:
  US 20080027980A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/103R
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/284 Relational databases
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99942 Manipulating data structure, e.g. compression, compaction, compilation

Abstract

A computer readable medium for validating data is disclosed. The computer readable medium provides a computer readable medium with instructions executable by a computer to cause the computer to perform the following functions: receive a subjective representation of an address; re-format the subjective representation of the address according to a set of standardization rules; locate one or more candidate representations of the address from source data by recognizing that a preferred token is present among any of the one or more candidate representations of the address; select a preferred representation of the address from among the one or more candidate representations of the address based on the presence of the preferred token; and communicate the preferred representation of the address to an interface.

Claims

1. A computer readable medium having instructions executable by a computer to cause the computer to perform the following functions:

receive a subjective representation of the address stored in a first relational database, said subjective representation of the address comprising a plurality of artifacts including a name, street address, city, state, and zip code;

re-format the subjective representation of the address according to a set of standardization rules;

arrange a plurality of records stored in a second relational database in one or more second tables in hierarchical order based upon the values of said source data stored in said plurality of records;

transform one or more of said second tables into a sparse matrix linked list;

locate one or more candidate representations of the address from source data stored in said second relational database by recognizing that a preferred token is present among any of said one or more candidate representations of the address;

select a preferred representation of the address from among said one or more candidate representations of the address based on the presence of the preferred token; and

communicate said preferred representation of the address from a third relational database to an interface.

2. The computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein said computer readable medium has instructions for causing a computer to perform the following function:

store said one or more second tables as a sparse matrix linked list in said second relational database.

3. The computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein said computer readable medium has instructions for causing a computer to perform the following functions:

(a) parse said subjective representation of the address into a plurality of discrete artifacts;

(b) select one of said plurality of discrete artifacts;

(1) locate one or more candidate artifacts from among said source data by comparing said one of said plurality of discrete artifacts to said source data;

(2) select a preferred artifact from among said plurality of candidate artifacts;

(c) repeat step (b) for each of said plurality of discrete artifacts; and

(d) combine the plurality of preferred artifacts to form one of said one or more candidate representations of the address.

4. The computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein said computer readable medium has instructions for causing a computer to perform the following function:

read standardization data from the third relational databases, said standardization data comprising one or more standardized representations of said plurality of discrete artifacts.

5. The computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein said computer readable medium has instructions for causing a computer to perform the following functions:

(a) parse said subjective representation of the address into the plurality of discrete artifacts;

(b) select one of said plurality of discrete artifacts;

(1) locate one or more candidate alias artifacts from among said source data by comparing said one of the plurality of discrete artifacts to said alias data;

(2) select a preferred alias artifact from among said one or more candidate alias artifacts;

(c) repeat step (b) for each of said one or more discrete artifacts to generate a plurality of selected preferred alias artifacts; and

(d) combine said plurality of selected preferred alias artifacts to form one of said one or more candidate representations of the address.

6. The computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein said computer readable medium has instructions for causing a computer to perform the following functions:

present said one or more candidate representations of the address to a user; and

receive an indication from the user identifying one of the one or more candidate representations of the address as the preferred representation of the address.

7. The computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein said computer readable medium has instructions for causing a computer to perform the following functions:

parse said subjective representation of the address into a plurality of discrete artifacts;

read standardization data in the third relational database, said standardization data comprising one or more standardized representations of said plurality of discrete artifacts; and

read alias data in a fourth relational database, said alias data comprising one or more equivalent representations of said plurality of discrete artifacts.

8. The computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein said computer readable medium has instructions for causing a computer to perform the following function:

read a plurality of rule sets, each correlated to one of said one or more external applications;

receive a request from a first external application;

retrieve a first rule set correlated to said first external application; and

apply said first rule set to govern the interaction between said first external application and said one or more computer program modules.