Method and System for Data Analysis

• US 20090276692A1
• Filed: 03/03/2009
• Published: 11/05/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 05/05/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Drinking Bird Software Limited
• Original Assignee: Drinking Bird Software Limited
• Inventors: Rosner, Norm
• Granted Patent: US 8,347,204 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/227
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2456 Join operations
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2465 Query processing support for facilitating data mining operations in structured databases
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/177 of tables; using ruled lines

Abstract

A data analysis and display system and method for performing a plurality of operations on data arranged in data tables. One or more of the following data operations are provided: combining separate data together, for example by joining and appending; normalizing and summarizing; copying; calculating and presenting new information from existing data; making corrections in a persistent manner, and analyzing the data, to allow users to work with their data at a high level using a core set of functions that facilitate performance of these operations in a generally simple, intuitive manner.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method, executed in a processor, of joining a target table and a source table, the target table and the source table each comprising multiple arrays of cells, each cell in the multiple arrays of cells being capable of including data, the method comprising:

linking a first array of cells of the target table with a source array of cells of the source table, the source array of cells having at least one cell including data identical to data in at least one cell of the first array of cells in the target table, the first array of cells of the target table further having associated data in at least a second array of cells of the target table;

conjoining data in the source array of cells with data of the linked first target array of cells and the associated data of the at least a second target array of cells;

creating a joined table comprising the conjoined data of the source array of cells, the data of the linked first target array of cells and the associated data of the at least a second target array of cells.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

providing a user option to correct unnormalized data in the at least a second target array of cells of the joined table; and

reflecting the corrected data in the associated data of the at least a second target array of cells;

wherein the joined table comprises unnormalized data when the associated data of the at least a second target array of cells includes redundant data.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the step of reflecting the corrected data further comprises displaying the corrected data in a visual style that is different from the visual style of uncorrected data in the joined table.

4. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

maintaining a data link between data in the joined table, the target table and the source table; and

updating data in the joined table when data in at least one cell of the source table or target table is modified.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising displaying the conjoined data of the source array of cells in a first visual style, and displaying the data of the linked first target array of cells and the associated data of the at least a second target array of cells in a second visual style.

6. The method of claim 5 further wherein the first visual style comprises a first graphical icon and the second visual style comprises a second graphical icon.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of linking the first array of cells of the target table with a source array of cells of the source table further comprises:

displaying, on a single user interface screen, a target table icon representative of the target table, and a source table icon representative of the source table;

receiving a selection for a source array of cells of the source table;

receiving a selection for a target array of cells of the target table; and

receiving a drag and drop selection of the source table icon onto the target table icon to create the joined table.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising displaying a visual directional link between the source table icon and an icon representative of the joined table.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the source table is selected from the group consisting of a manual input table, an electronic spreadsheet input table and a database input table.

10. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

providing a user option to correct unmatched data in the at least a second target array of cells of the joined table; and

reflecting the corrected data in the associated data of the at least a second target array of cells;

wherein the joined table comprises unmatched data when the associated data of the at least a second target array of cells includes unmatched data.

11. A computer implemented method of summarizing one or more cell arrays of a source table, the source table comprising multiple arrays of cells, each cell in the multiple arrays of cells capable of including data values, to provide a summarized table, the method comprising:

receiving a selection of a first one or more cell arrays of the source table as a key array;

receiving a selection of a second one or more cell arrays of the source table as a summarization array;

consolidating redundant data values in the key array to a single data value; and

aggregating data values in the summarization array associated with the single data value to provide an aggregated value corresponding to the single data value of the key array.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising the step of creating a resultant table, the resultant table including the aggregated data values in the summarization array associated with the single data value.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising displaying a visual directional link between an icon representative of the source table and an icon representative of the resultant table on single user interface screen.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein aggregating data values in the summarization array further comprises:

mathematically aggregating values associated with the single data value to provide a representative aggregated value.

15. The method of claim 11, wherein aggregating data values further comprises aggregating redundant data values to select a selection aggregate based on a selection rule.

16. The method according to claim 11, further comprising:

providing a user option to correct aggregated values in the summarization array; and

reflecting the correct aggregated value in the summarized table.

17. The method of claim 11 wherein the source table is selected from the group consisting of a manual input table, an electronic spreadsheet input table and a database input table.

18. A computer implemented system, executed in a processor, for providing data analysis and manipulation of at least one input table to provide a resultant table, the at least one input table and the resultant table comprising multiple arrays of cells, each cell in the multiple arrays of cells being capable of including data, the system comprising:

a corrections module configured for receiving user input for correcting data in the at least one input table and the resultant table, the corrections module configured for maintaining association between data in the at least one input table with data in the resultant table, such that a correction to data in any one data cell of the at least one input table is reflected in the resultant table;

wherein the corrections module is configured to maintain a history of corrections to the data cells of the at least one input table and the resultant table, the corrections module being further configured to receive a data reversing user input for reverting to previously corrected data, or original uncorrected data, among a history of corrections to the data cells in any one of the at least one input table and the resultant table.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the resultant table comprises a joined table and the at least one input table is selected from the group consisting of a target table and a source table.

20. The system of claim 18 wherein the at least one input table is selected from the group consisting of a manual input table, an electronic spreadsheet input table and a database input table.

21. A computer implemented system, executed in a processor, for providing data analysis and manipulation of an input table and a resultant table, the input table and the resultant table comprising multiple arrays of cells, each cell in the multiple arrays of cells being capable of including data, the system comprising:

a corrections module configured for receiving user input for correcting data in the resultant table by overwriting data in a target cell array of the resultant table with respective data of a selected cell array of the input table, the target cell array of the resultant table and the selected cell array of input table having at least one data item in common;

wherein the corrections module is configured to maintain a history of corrections to the data cells of the resultant table, the corrections module being further configured to receive a data reversing user input for reverting to previously corrected data, or original uncorrected data, among a history of corrections to the data cells of the resultant table.

22. The system of claim 21, wherein the resultant table comprises an aggregated cell array, the aggregated cell array comprising aggregated data values at least partly based on the respective data values of the target cell array of the resultant table, the system further comprising:

recalculating the aggregated data values in the aggregated cell array of the resultant table based on the corrected data of the target cell array of the resultant table; and

displaying the recalculated values of the aggregated cell array in the resultant table.