DATA CLUSTERING BASED ON CANDIDATE QUERIES

• US 20130124525A1
• Filed: 11/15/2012
• Published: 05/16/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 11/15/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ab Initio Technology LLC (Ab Initio Software Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Ab Initio Technology LLC (Ab Initio Software Corporation)
• Inventors: Anderson, Arlen, Trojan, Kamil
• Granted Patent: US 9,361,355 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/737
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/20 of structured data, e.g. relational data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24534 Query rewriting; Transformation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/278 Data partitioning, e.g. horizontal or vertical partitioning
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/285 Clustering or classification
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/3338 Query expansion

Abstract

Received data records, each including one or more values in one or more fields, are processed to identify a matched data cluster. The processing includes: for selected data records, generating a query from one or more values; identifying one or more candidate data records from the received data records using the query; determining whether or not the selected data record satisfies a cluster membership criterion for at least one candidate data cluster of one or more existing data clusters containing the candidate records; and selecting the matched data cluster from among one or more candidate data clusters based at least in part on a growth criterion for the candidate data clusters, or initializing the matched data cluster with the selected data record if the selected data record does not satisfy a cluster membership criterion for any of the existing data clusters or based on a result of the growth criterion.

Claims

1. A method, including:

receiving data records, the received data records each including one or more values in one or more fields; and

processing the received data records to identify a matched data cluster to associate with each received data record, the processing including;

for selected data records from the received data records, generating a query from the one or more values included in the selected data record;

identifying one or more candidate data records from the received data records using the query;

determining whether or not the selected data record satisfies a cluster membership criterion for at least one candidate data cluster of one or more existing data clusters containing the candidate records; and

selecting the matched data cluster from among one or more candidate data clusters based at least in part on a growth criterion for the candidate data clusters, or initializing the matched data cluster with the selected data record if the selected data record does not satisfy a cluster membership criterion for any of the existing data clusters or based on a result of the growth criterion.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein generating the query includes identifying tokens that each include at least one value or fragment of a value in a field or a combination of fields of the selected data record.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the query includes the tokens identified from the selected data record, and tokens that were identified from other received data records and that have a variant relationship to the tokens identified from the selected data record.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the variant relationship is based at least in part on an edit distance.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein identifying candidate data records includes looking up the identified tokens in a data store, the data store mapping stored tokens to candidate data records or existing data clusters containing candidate data records.

6. The method of claim 5, further including generating a set of stored tokens mapped to a candidate data record based on tokens identified from the candidate data record and tokens that were identified from other received data records and that have a variant relationship to the tokens identified from the candidate data record.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the processing further includes sorting at least an initial set of the received data records based on a distinguishability criterion that determines a degree to which one or more values included in a particular data record are able to distinguish that particular data record from other data records.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the selected data records from the received data records include selected data records from the sorted set of data records.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the distinguishability criterion is based on at least one of:

a number of fields that are populated with a value, or number of tokens in one or more fields.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein selecting the matched data cluster includes:

calculating a comparison score by comparing the selected data record to at least one representative data record for an existing data cluster; and

selecting the existing data cluster as the matched data cluster in response to determining that the comparison score exceeds a first threshold.

11. The method of claim 10, further including:

comparing the comparison score to a second threshold; and

initializing the matched data cluster with the selected data record in response to determining that the comparison score does not exceed the second threshold.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein selecting the matched data cluster from among one or more existing data clusters includes selecting the matched data cluster from among multiple candidate data clusters for which the selected data record satisfies a cluster membership criterion.

13. The method of claim 12, further including storing information identifying one or more candidate data clusters that were not selected as the matched data cluster for the selected data record.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying candidate data records includes comparing the query to a data store mapping queries to candidate clusters including an entry mapping the query to a first cluster.

15. The method of claim 14, further including:

receiving a request to map the selected data record to a second cluster; and

updating the data store to map the query to the second cluster.

16. The method of claim 14, further including:

receiving a request to map the data record to a new cluster;

updating the data store with a new cluster indicator;

generating a new cluster; and

assigning the selected data record to the new cluster.

17. The method of claim 14, further including:

receiving a request to confirm membership of the selected data record in the first cluster; and

storing information in the data store so that updates of the data store in response to requests associated with other data records do not change membership of the selected data record in the first membership cluster.

18. The method of claim 14, further including:

receiving a request to exclude membership of the selected data record in the first cluster;

updating the data store to change membership of the selected data record; and

storing information in the data store so that updates of the data store in response to requests associated with other data records do not allow membership of the selected data record in the first membership cluster.

19. The method of claim 14, further including receiving input from a user to approve or modify association of received data records to matched data clusters.

20. A computer program stored on a computer-readable storage medium, the computer program including instructions for causing a computing system to:

receive data records, the received data records each including one or more values in one or more fields; and

process the received data records to identify a matched data cluster to associate with each received data record, the processing including;

for selected data records from the received data records, generating a query from the one or more values included in the selected data record;

identifying one or more candidate data records from the received data records using the query;

determining whether or not the selected data record satisfies a cluster membership criterion for at least one candidate data cluster of one or more existing data clusters containing the candidate records; and

selecting the matched data cluster from among one or more candidate data clusters based at least in part on a growth criterion for the candidate data clusters, or initializing the matched data cluster with the selected data record if the selected data record does not satisfy a cluster membership criterion for any of the existing data clusters or based on a result of the growth criterion.

21. A computing system, including:

an input device or port configured to receive data records, the received data records each including one or more values in one or more fields; and

at least one processor configured to process the received data records to identify a matched data cluster to associate with each received data record, the processing including;

for selected data records from the received data records, generating a query from the one or more values included in the selected data record;

identifying one or more candidate data records from the received data records using the query;

determining whether or not the selected data record satisfies a cluster membership criterion for at least one candidate data cluster of one or more existing data clusters containing the candidate records; and

selecting the matched data cluster from among one or more candidate data clusters based at least in part on a growth criterion for the candidate data clusters, or initializing the matched data cluster with the selected data record if the selected data record does not satisfy a cluster membership criterion for any of the existing data clusters or based on a result of the growth criterion.

22. A computing system, including:

means for receiving data records, the received data records each including one or more values in one or more fields; and

means for processing the received data records to identify a matched data cluster to associate with each received data record, the processing including;

for selected data records from the received data records, generating a query from the one or more values included in the selected data record;

identifying one or more candidate data records from the received data records using the query;

determining whether or not the selected data record satisfies a cluster membership criterion for at least one candidate data cluster of one or more existing data clusters containing the candidate records; and

selecting the matched data cluster from among one or more candidate data clusters based at least in part on a growth criterion for the candidate data clusters, or initializing the matched data cluster with the selected data record if the selected data record does not satisfy a cluster membership criterion for any of the existing data clusters or based on a result of the growth criterion.