SEARCH-BASED DETECTION, LINK, AND ACQUISITION OF DATA

• US 20160217180A1
• Filed: 03/18/2016
• Published: 07/28/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 01/27/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Rais-Ghasem, Mohsen, Grosset, Robin N.
• Granted Patent: US 10,242,046 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/243 Natural language query formulation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24575 using context

Abstract

A computing device may receive a natural language query. The computing device may determine, based on the natural language query, a set of search criteria. The computing device may determine, from a plurality of data sets, two or more data sets that are relevant to the natural language query based at least in part on matches between the set of search criteria and attributes of the plurality of data sets. The computing device may join the two or more data sets, including joining one or more rows and one or more columns of the two or more data sets to produce a joint data set. The computing device may output a representation of the joint data set.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving, by a computing device, a natural language query;

determining, by the computing device and based on the natural language query, a set of search criteria;

determining, by the computing device and from a plurality of data sets stored in one or more storage devices, two or more data sets that are relevant to the natural language query based at least in part on matches between the set of search criteria and attributes of the plurality of data sets;

joining, by the computing device, the two or more data sets, including joining one or more rows and one or more columns of the two or more data sets, to produce a joint data set; and

outputting, by the computing device, a representation of the joint data set.

2. The method of claim 1,

wherein the matches between the set of search criteria and the attributes of the plurality of data sets include one or more of:

a literal match, a value match, a semantic match, or a partial name match, and

wherein the attributes of the plurality of data sets include one or more of;

semantic metadata, lexical clues, sample values, or numeric statistics.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

associating, by the computing device, an indication of matching strength with each of the matches; and

ranking, by the computing device, the matches based on the respective indication of matching strength associated with each of the matches.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

determining, by the computing device, a coverage score for each of one or more combinations of two or more data sets of the plurality of data sets based at least in part on the ranking of the matches; and

determining one of the one or more combinations of two or more data sets as the two or more data sets to join into the joint data set based at least in part on the respective determined coverage score for each of the one of the one or more combinations of two or more data sets.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein:

determining, by the computing device, the one of the one or more combinations of two or more data sets as the two or more data sets to join into the joint data set further comprises determining one or more join paths of data items between the two or more data sets; and

joining, by the computing device, the two or more data sets, further comprises joining the two or more data sets based at least in part on the one or more join paths.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the one or more join paths includes value overlaps in the two or more data sets.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the one or more join paths includes matching data items in the two or more data sets.

8. The method of claim 5, wherein determining the one or more join paths is based at least in part on concept-specific rules.

9. The method of claim 5, wherein determining the one or more join paths further comprises excluding metric data items from the one or more join paths.

10. The method of claim 5, wherein determining the one or more join paths of the data items further comprises adjusting the one or more join paths based at least in part on user input.