AUTOMATED ANALYSIS OF DATA REPORTS TO DETERMINE DATA STRUCTURE AND TO PERFORM AUTOMATED DATA PROCESSING

• US 20170139966A1
• Filed: 11/18/2015
• Published: 05/18/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 11/18/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SAP SE
• Original Assignee: SAP SE
• Inventors: AZOULAY, Patrick
• Granted Patent: US 10,089,343 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2246 Trees, e.g. B+trees
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2365 Ensuring data consistency and integrity
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24566 Recursive queries
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/93 Document management systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/137 Hierarchical processing, e.g. outlines
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/177 of tables; using ruled lines

Abstract

A computer-implemented method for building a hierarchy of elements depending on data disclosed in reports includes identifying one or more areas containing one or more elements in each of multiple reports which contain data, where the elements comprise parent elements and child elements. The method includes parsing the data of each of the elements to simulate relationship operations between the parent elements and the child elements until consistent aggregations are found, identifying data with a same unit and adjusting the data to have a same scale or a same precision, recursively searching the aggregated data by applying the found relationship operations to build a tree structure having at least a portion of the elements of each report built in the tree structure arranged in a hierarchy of elements and storing the tree structure, including a level of each of the elements and the relationship operation.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for building a hierarchy of elements depending on data disclosed in reports including executing instructions stored on a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, the method comprising:

identifying one or more areas containing one or more elements in each of multiple reports which contain data, wherein the elements comprise parent elements and child elements;

parsing the data of each of the elements to simulate relationship operations between the parent elements and the child elements until consistent aggregations are found;

identifying data with a same unit and adjusting the data to have a same scale or a same precision;

recursively searching the aggregated data by applying the found relationship operations to build a tree structure having at least a portion of the elements of each report built in the tree structure arranged in a hierarchy of elements; and

storing the tree structure, including a level of each of the elements and the relationship operation.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein parsing the data includes parsing the data of each of the elements to simulate relationship operations between the parent elements and the child elements until consistent aggregations are found includes factoring a tolerance value against errors between the parent elements and the child elements when finding consistent aggregations.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the tolerance value is configurable.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the tree structure includes an identifier generated for each element.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising identifying duplicate data and applying a same identifier for an identified duplicate.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising translating a layout of the reports including an indentation of labels of each element, group outlines, special fonts on aggregated data into level attributes in the tree structure.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein storing the tree structure comprises storing the tree structure in a report such that the tree structure is hidden from view.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising performing rounding adjustments using the tree structure.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising performing one or more consistency checks using the tree structure.

10. A computer-implemented method for collecting raw data from reports including executing instructions stored on a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, the method comprising:

for each of multiple reports, identifying areas of each report in rows and columns which contain data;

detecting headers in the reported data and translating the headers into data attributes or dimension members;

searching for duplicated identifiers between the reported data and creating foreign links between tables;

searching for aggregations between the records and creating persistent hierarchies;

building a data structure including the tables, the relations between the tables and the table hierarchies identified in the reports; and

storing the reported data with the database structure.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the storage is a multi-dimensional array of data.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the storage is a relational database.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein the data structure includes a tree structure.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the tree structure includes an identifier generated for each element of the data structure.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising applying a same identifier for an identified duplicate.

16. A computer-implemented method for automating an update of tables or documents using identifiable formulas that display an original value, an adjustment value and special pattern strings used for transformations of computations including executing instructions stored on a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, the method comprising:

determining whether updates have been applied to one or more parsed reports;

if updates have been applied to the parsed reports, cancelling a current operation and removing formulas and adjustment values to return to an original value;

identifying one or more fields to update;

processing adjustments based on a given hierarchy; and

concatenating the formulas, the original value and the adjustment values inside the fields in order to minimize an impact on a layout of the report to allow reverse operation and additional adjustments.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the update process includes the management of comments or labels attached to areas or cells of the reports for simulating updates, tracking updates, or logging information.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein the formula is made of a user defined function including parameters such as the original value and the adjustment values.

19. The method of claim 16, wherein the formulas include variables that can be updated through entry fields or graphical controls in the report or in the graphical user interface.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the variables are used for defining the scale and the number of digits of data in the report.