SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR SEARCHING DATA STRUCTURES OF A DATABASE

• US 20140201194A1
• Filed: 01/17/2013
• Published: 07/17/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 01/17/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SAP SE
• Original Assignee: Ganesh Vaitheeswaran
• Inventors: REDDY, Vidyasagar, Tripathy, Manasa Ranjan, Talasila, Sasank Krishna, Vaitheeswaran, Ganesh, Bhattacharjee, Arindam
• Granted Patent: US 9,342,566 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/722
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/248 Presentation of query results

Abstract

Method and systems may be used to provide search results in response to plain language queries from a database. A search query may be received and a database may be queried. A metadata search of the database data structures may be performed to determine a search set based on the search query. Using the search set, a data search may be performed to determine the database data structures for a result set. Result data structures may be generated based on the result set. The result data structures may be iteratively provided to a client to display the search results responsive to the search query quickly. The relevant data may be retrieved from the database in response to a selection. In some instances, the results retrieved from the database in response to a selection of a result data structure may be limited based on a count parameter.

Claims

1. A method for providing search results comprising:

receiving a search query;

querying, by the one or more processing modules, a database having plurality of database data structures based on the search query;

generating, by the one or more processing modules, a first result data structure for a first database data structure of the plurality of database data structures based, at least in part, on the querying of the database;

receiving a first search result request;

outputting, by the one or more processing modules, data indicative of the first result data structure in response to the first search result request;

generating, by the one or more processing modules, a second result data structure for a second database data structure of the plurality of database data structures based, at least in part, on the querying of the database;

receiving a second search result request; and

outputting, by the one or more processing modules, data indicative of the second result data structure in response to the second search result request.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the second search result request is received after a predetermined period of time.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the second search result request is received in response to a user input.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of outputting data indicative of the first result data structure further comprises outputting an end index value for an index of result data structures, wherein the second search result request comprises the end index value, and wherein the step of outputting data indicative of the second result data structure further comprises comparing the end index value to a current end index value of the index of result data structures.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the first result data structure and the second result data structure each comprises:

a properties object, and

a metadata object, wherein the metadata object comprises data indicative of a portion of the first database data structure responsive to the search query.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the properties object comprises a score relative to the search query.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

ranking, by the one or more processing modules, the first result data structure and the second result data structure based, at least in part, on the scores.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving data indicative of a user selection of the first result data structure or the second result data structure; and

generating, using the one or more processing modules, a result query based, at least in part, on the selected first result data structure or second result data structure.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

querying, by the one or more processing modules, the database based on the result query; and

outputting, by the one or more processing modules, result data based on the result query.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the search query comprises a search term, wherein each database data structure of the plurality of database data structures comprises a metadata term and associated data, wherein the step of querying the database comprises:

determining, by the one or more processing modules, whether the search term matches a portion of the metadata term for the first database data structure,

determining, by the one or more processing modules, that the metadata term is associated with a measure when the search term matches a portion of the metadata term, and

identifying, by the one or more processing modules, the first database data structure as part of a search set in response to the search term matching a portion of the metadata term and the metadata term is associated with a measure.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the step of querying the database further comprises:

determining whether the search term of matches a portion of the associated data of the first database data structure of the search set, and

identifying the first database data structure as part of a result set when the search term matches a portion of the associated data.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the first result data structure includes a match identifier when the search term exactly matches the metadata term or a portion of the associated data.

13. A system comprising:

a tangible computer-readable storage device comprising instructions; and

one or more data processors coupled to the tangible computer-readable storage device and configured to execute the instructions to perform operations comprising;

parsing a search query into a set of search terms;

querying, in parallel, a database having a plurality of database data structures based on the set of search terms, wherein each database data structure of the plurality of database data structures comprises a metadata term and associated data, wherein a query procedure for the operation of querying the database comprises;

determining whether a search term of the set of search terms matches a portion of the metadata term for each database data structure of the plurality of database data structures,

determining that the metadata term is associated with a measure when a search term matches a portion of the metadata term,

identifying a database data structure as part of a search set when the metadata term is associated with a measure,

determining whether a search term of the set of search terms matches a portion of the associated data for each database data structure of the search set, and

identifying a database data structure as part of a result set when a search term of the set of search terms matches a portion of the associated data;

generating a result data structure for each database data structure of the result set; and

outputting data indicative of each generated result data structure.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the query procedure for the operation of querying the database further comprises:

determining a number of metadata hits for the set of search terms for each database data structure, and

ordering the database data structures in the search set based on the number of metadata hits for each database data structure of the search set.

15. The system of claim 13, wherein the search query is parsed into sets of five or less search terms.

16. The system of claim 13, wherein each generated result data structure comprises an properties object, a metadata object, and a data object.

17. The system of claim 16, further comprising:

populating the data object of a generated result data structure in response to a user selection of that generated result data structure based on the associated data of a database data structure associated with the result data structure.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the operation of populating the data object of a generated result data structure comprises generating a query based, at least in part, on the metadata object of the generated result data structure.

19. A method for providing search results in response to a search query comprising:

generating a result data structure associated with a database data structure in response to a search query, wherein the result data structure comprises a dimension portion;

receiving a count parameter for the dimension portion;

querying a database for data of the database data structure associated with the result data structure, wherein the data is limited by the count parameter; and

outputting the returned data.

20. The method of claim 19, further comprising:

determining whether the dimension portion is associated with a time dimension; and

setting the count parameter to a predetermined value based on the time dimension.