Methods and systems for formulating and executing concept-structured queries of unorganized data

• US 20080082501A1
• Filed: 10/02/2006
• Published: 04/03/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 10/02/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Leidos, Inc. (Leidos Holdings, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Science Applications International Corporation
• Inventors: Hardy, William Christopher
• Granted Patent: US 9,009,133 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/3
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/242 Query formulation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques

Abstract

Methods and systems for formulating and executing concept-structured queries of unorganized data are described. One described method for searching an unstructured data set includes receiving at least one user specified category whose definition is unconstrained, receiving at least one user specified token associated with the at least one category, generating a boolean query associated with the at least one token and the at least one category, executing the boolean query against an unstructured data set to identify at least one article identifier associated with an article, and creating a result set comprising the at least one article identifier.

Claims

1. A method for searching an unstructured data set comprising:

receiving at least one user specified category whose definition is not constrained;

receiving at least one user specified token associated with the at least one category;

generating a boolean query associated with the combination of the at least one category and the at least one token;

executing the boolean query against an unstructured data set to identify at least one article identifier associated with an article; and

creating a result set comprising the at least one article identifier.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one category comprises a plurality of categories.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one token comprises a plurality of tokens.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the unstructured data set comprises at least one of:

a folder on a physical or logical drive, a web server, or a database.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one article identifier comprises one of:

a Uniform Resource Locator (“

URL”

), a file name, a link, an icon, a path for a local file, or a database entry.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein generating the boolean query comprises:

creating a string list, each element of the string list associated with the at least one token;

generating a matrix having a first dimension and a second dimension, wherein the first dimension is associated with the string list and the second dimension is associated with the at least one category;

setting each cell of the matrix equal to a first value if the string associated with the cell is in the category associated with the cell and a second value if not;

determining a vector reflecting the presence of a token in the article; and

determining the product of the vector and the matrix.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising if one of the at least one categories comprises an exclusion category, determining a complement of the vector for the exclusion category.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the result set comprises a first result set and further comprising executing a cascading query on the first result set to generate a second result set.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing the result set to a user interface.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

receiving a selection of one of the at least one article identifiers from the result set; and

providing the article associated with the one of the at least one article identifiers to the user interface.

11. A computer-readable medium on which is encoded executable program code, the program code comprising:

program code for receiving at least one user specified category whose definition is not constrained;

program code for receiving at least one user specified token associated with the at least one category;

program code for generating a boolean query associated with the combination of the at least one category and the at least one token;

program code for executing the boolean query against an unstructured data set to identify at least one article identifier associated with an article; and

program code for creating a result set comprising the at least one article identifier.

12. The computer-readable medium of claim 11, wherein program code for generating the boolean query comprises:

program code for creating a string list, each element of the string list associated with the at least one token;

program code for generating a matrix having a first dimension and a second dimension, wherein the first dimension is associated with the string list and the second dimension is associated with the at least one category;

program code for setting each cell of the matrix equal to a first value if the string associated with the cell is in the category associated with the cell and a second value if not;

program code for determining a vector reflecting the presence of a token in the article; and

program code for determining the product of the vector and the matrix.

13. The computer-readable medium of claim 12, further comprising if one of the at least one categories comprises an exclusion category, program code for determining a complement of the vector for the exclusion category.

14. The computer-readable medium of claim 11, wherein the result set comprises a first result set and further comprising program code for executing a cascading query on the first result set to generate a second result set.

15. The computer-readable medium of claim 11, further comprising program code for providing the result set to a user interface.

16. The computer-readable medium of claim 15, further comprising:

program code for receiving a selection of one of the at least one article identifiers from the result set; and

program code for providing the article associated with the one of the at least one article identifiers to the user interface.

17. A system for searching an unstructured data set comprising:

a content descriptor tool configured to;

receive at least one user specified category whose definition is not constrained, and

receive at least one user specified token associated with the at least one category; and

a query engine configured to;

receive the at least one category and the at least one token,

generate a boolean query associated with the combination of the at least one

category and the at least one token,

execute the boolean query against an unstructured data set to identify at least one

article identifier associated with an article, and

create a result set comprising the at least one article identifier.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the query engine is further configured to:

create a string list, each element of the string list associated with the at least one token;

generate a matrix having a first dimension and a second dimension, wherein the first dimension is associated with the string list and the second dimension is associated with the at least one category;

set each cell of the matrix equal to a first value if the string associated with the cell is in the category associated with the cell and a second value if not;

determine a vector reflecting the presence of a token in the article; and

determine the product of the vector and the matrix.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the query engine is further configured to determine if one of the at least one categories comprises an exclusion category, and if so, to determine a complement of the vector for the exclusion category.

20. The system of claim 17, wherein the result set comprises a first result set and the query engine is further configured to execute a cascading query on the first result set to generate a second result set.

21. The system of claim 17, further comprising a user interface configured to display the result set.