APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR USING ONTOLOGICAL RELATIONSHIPS IN A COMPUTER DATABASE

• US 20080162470A1
• Filed: 02/28/2008
• Published: 07/03/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 05/26/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Barsness, Eric Lawrence, Santosuosso, John Matthew, Ruhlow, Randy William
• Granted Patent: US 7,779,024 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/5
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2452 Query translation
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99935 Query augmenting and refining, e.g. inexact access
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99936 Pattern matching access
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99944 Object-oriented database structure

Abstract

An apparatus and method use ontological relationships in a query language and a computer database to improve database performance and utility. A set of ontological relationships are stored in the database and new query clauses are used to query the data in advantageous ways. Ontological relationships are preferably stored in a tree structure. This tree structure then can be used to reflect the ontological relationships of data stored in the columns of a database.

Claims

1. An apparatus comprising:

at least one processor;

a memory coupled to the at least one processor;

a database residing in the memory having data;

a data structure that defines at least one ontological relationship for the data; and

a database query residing in the memory that references the data, the database query comprising a Change Query Attribute clause that uses the ontological relationship to modify an attribute of the query to operate on the data, where the Change Query Attribute clause uses the ontological relationship to modify an attribute of the query to operate on the data.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the data structure is organized in the shape of a tree.

6. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the Change Query Attribute clause is selected from the group consisting of:

Substitute Forward clause, Substitute Backward clause and Group By At Level clause.

3-5. -5. (canceled)

7. An article of manufacture comprising:

(A) a database manager that builds a data structure that defines at least one ontological relationship for data in a database and uses a database query with a Change Query Attribute clause that uses the ontological relationship to modify an attribute of the database query to operate on the data, where the Change Query Attribute clause uses the ontological relationship to modify an attribute of the query to operate on the data; and

(B) computer-recordable media bearing the database manager.

10. The article of manufacture of claim 7 wherein the data structure is organized in the shape of a tree.

14. The article of manufacture of claim 7 wherein the Change Query Attribute clause is selected from the group consisting of a Substitute Forward clause, Substitute Backward clause and Group By At Level clause.

8-9. -9. (canceled)

11-13. -13. (canceled)