METHOD FOR MAPPING A DATA SOURCE TO A DATA TARGET

• US 20080208855A1
• Filed: 01/09/2008
• Published: 08/28/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 02/27/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ginegar LLC (K.Mizra LLC)
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: LINGENFELDER, CHRISTOPH, SAILLET, YANNICK, RASPL, STEFAN
• Granted Patent: US 8,122,045 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/6
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/258 Data format conversion from or to a database
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/283 Multi-dimensional databases or data warehouses, e.g. MOLAP or ROLAP

Abstract

The invention relates to a method for mapping at least one data column from a database source to at least one data column of a data target, the method comprising: defining at least one reference column of the data target and at least one database source column; performing a comparison of data contained in the data column(s) with the reference column(s); and determining mapping candidates between the data column(s) and the reference column(s).

Claims

1. A method for mapping data from a database source to a data target, comprising

defining at least one reference column of the data target;

performing a comparison of data contained in at least one data column and data contained in said at least one reference column;

determining mapping candidates between said at least one data column and said at least one reference column based on said comparison of data.

2. The method according to claim 1 wherein said step of determining comprises the step of

performing a comparison of statistical properties of said data columns in the database source and data columns in the data target.

3. The method according to claim 2 wherein said statistical properties are a function of the data type contained in the said data columns and the data type contained in the data target.

4. The method according to claim 3 wherein said data type comprises one of numeric data, categorical data, and free text data.

5. The method according to claim 3 wherein said statistical properties are the same for said data columns of the same type.

6. The method according to claim 2 further comprising the step of annotating data in said data columns using said statistical properties.

7. The method according to claim 2 further comprising the step of computing statistics when either a new database source or a new data target is registered.

8. The method according to claims 2 further comprising the step of computing statistics when a user begins the mapping of data from the database source to the data target.

9. The method according to claim 8 further comprising the step of storing said computed statistics.

10. The method according to claim 2 further comprising the step of computing a similarity between statistical properties of data in said reference column and data in said database source column.

11. The method according to claim 2 further comprising the steps of

determining mapping candidates having best matches;

and

presenting said mapping candidates having best matches to a user.

12. The method according to claim 11 wherein said step of presenting comprises the step of

confirming a selection of one of said mapping candidates by a user.

13. A program product comprising a computer useable medium including a computer readable program, wherein the computer readable program when executed on a computer causes the computer to:

perform a comparison of data contained in at least one data column of a database source with data in at least one reference column in a data target; and

determine mapping candidates between said at least one data column and said at least one reference column based on said comparison of data.

14. The program product according to claim 13 further comprising the step of annotating data in said at least one said data column using statistical properties statistical properties obtained from said at least one data column and said reference column.