DYNAMICALLY DETECTING EXCEPTIONS BASED ON DATA CHANGES

• US 20080189639A1
• Filed: 02/02/2007
• Published: 08/07/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 02/02/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Crivat, Ioan Bogdan, MacLennan, C. James, Iyer, Raman S.
• Granted Patent: US 7,797,356 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/771
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/177 of tables; using ruled lines

Abstract

Fields contained in data expressed as tabular data having columns and rows can initially be marked as exceptions, wherein a column within a row can be the potential cause of the exception. A user configurable parameter can be utilized to change the sensitivity or allowable exceptions for each row and/or column, to increase or decrease the number of exceptions detected. As data within each field are modified, added or deleted, or when the configurable parameter is changed, the exceptions marked can be automatically updated. Such updated exceptions can be the same or different from the initially marked exceptions. As such, a user can evaluate data and determine whether various changes within the data will change various outcomes.

Claims

1. A system that facilitates dynamically detecting data exceptions in tabular data, comprising:

a predictive analysis component that receives tabular data from an application and marks one or more rows that are exceptions within the tabular data; and

a comparison component that receives changes to one or more parameters of the tabular data and automatically evaluates the one or more parameters against the one or more marked rows and selectively updates the one or more marked rows.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising an interface component that provides a user configurable parameter that defines a threshold for marking the one or more rows as an exception.

3. The system of claim 1, the one or more parameters is at least one of a data modification, a data addition, a data deletion, or a sensitivity parameter change or combinations thereof.

4. The system of claim 1, further comprising a sensitivity value that has a low value and a high value, the low value results in less exceptions being marked in the tabular data and the high value represents more exceptions being marked in the tabular data.

5. The system of claim 1, the comparison component utilizes conditional formatting to update the one or more rows that are displayed.

6. The system of claim 1, further comprising a notification component that automatically invokes the comparison component when a data change occurs.

7. The system of claim 1 further comprising a display component that presents the tabular data and the one or more marked rows.

8. The system of claim 1, the predictive analysis component and the comparison component are executed on a server independent of the location of the tabular data.

9. The system of claim 1, further comprising a scoring component that utilizes data mining techniques to update the one or more marked rows.

10. The system of claim 1, the one or more rows are marked by a highlighting scheme.

11. The system of claim 1, the tabular data is contained in a spreadsheet application.

12. The system of claim 1, the tabular data is contained in an XML application.

13. A method for dynamically detecting and presenting exception data;

comprising;

receiving a data change notification;

evaluating a changed row;

returning an exception score for a current row;

comparing the exception score with a sensitivity metric; and

presenting the exception result to a user.

14. The method of claim 13, comparing the exception score with a sensitivity metric comprising providing a configurable set point.

15. The method of claim 13, presenting the exception result to a user comprising highlighting a row and a column within the row with a highlighting scheme.

16. The method of claim 13, evaluating a changed row comprising utilizing a data mining system that contains a pattern model.

17. The method of claim 13, presenting the exception result to a user is on the fly as data change notifications are received.

18. The method of claim 13, further comprising accepting a user change to at least one of a data modification, a data addition, a data deletion or a sensitivity metric parameter, or combinations thereof.

19. A computer executable system that provides dynamic exception detection in tabular data, comprising:

means for receiving a change to a database;

means for evaluating the database change against existing data; and

means for dynamically updating at least one row exception data or column exception data based in part on the evaluated database change.

20. The computer executable system of claim 19, further comprising means for automatically displaying the updated at least one or row exception data or column exception.