Method and apparatus for query and analysis
First Claim
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1. A method of selecting desired documents from a document collection comprising:
- reading a first query expression, said first query expression indicating a first subset of said collection;
reading an analysis indicator of an analysis to be performed on said first subset; and
generating an analysis output by performing said analysis on said first subset;
wherein said analysis comprises a function that returns indications of N subsets of said first subset, and wherein said analysis output is initially returned as one or more second query expressions each associated with one of said N subsets of said first subset.
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Abstract
A data handling method combines search capabilities with analytical functionality. The invention provides advantages when dealing with structured documents (such as electronic catalogs, XML documents, text documents, HTML documents, Internet documents, etc.) and other data stored in a computer system. Various embodiments include simplified ways to express search/analysis requests of a data set and also to express results to such requests.
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Citations
26 Claims
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1. A method of selecting desired documents from a document collection comprising:
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reading a first query expression, said first query expression indicating a first subset of said collection;
reading an analysis indicator of an analysis to be performed on said first subset; and
generating an analysis output by performing said analysis on said first subset;
wherein said analysis comprises a function that returns indications of N subsets of said first subset, and wherein said analysis output is initially returned as one or more second query expressions each associated with one of said N subsets of said first subset. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13)
reading a redirection indicator indicating that said analysis results are to be evaluated as queries to a document set.
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8. The method of claim 1 further comprising:
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determining if said first subset contains sufficient data; and
if not, modifying said query using a fallback procedure to generate a larger first subset.
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9. The method of claim 8 further comprising:
reading a second query expression outside of said redirection indicator and combining said second query expression with one or more query expressions output by said analysis.
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10. The method of claim 1 further comprising:
reading an analysis parameter indicating a desired number of second query expressions to be returned by said analysis.
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11. The method of claim 1 wherein said function comprises a rollup function that returns said indications of said N subsets of said first subset, each of said N subsets including documents that contain at least one of the top N most frequent values from an indicated field expression.
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12. The method of claim 1 wherein said function comprises a categorize function that returns said indications of said N subsets of said first subset, each of said N subsets including documents identified by determining patterns of name/value pairs that tend to occur together.
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13. The method of claim 1 wherein said function comprises a partition function that returns said indications of said N subsets of said first subset based on the number of the documents that appear in more than one of said N subsets and the number of the documents in each of said N subsets.
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14. Computer-readable media embodying instructions executable by a computer to perform a method of selecting desired documents from a document collection, the method comprising:
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reading a first query expression, said first query expression indicating a first subset of said collection;
reading an analysis indicator of an analysis to be performed on said first subset; and
generating an analysis output by performing said analysis on said first subset;
wherein said analysis comprises a function that returns indications of N subsets of said first subset; and
wherein said analysis output is initially returned as one or more second query expressions each associated with one of said N subsets of said first subset. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26)
reading a redirection indicator indicating that said analysis results are to be evaluated as queries to a document set.
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21. The media of claim 14, wherein the method further comprises:
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determining if said first subset contains sufficient data; and
if not, modifying said query using a fallback procedure to generate a larger first subset.
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22. The media of claim 20, wherein the method further comprises:
reading a second query expression outside of said redirection indicator and combining said second query expression with one or more query expressions output by said analysis.
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23. The media of claim 14, wherein the method further comprises:
reading an analysis parameter indicating a desired number of second query expressions to be returned by said analysis.
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24. The media of claim 14 wherein said function comprises a rollup function that returns said indications of said N subsets of said first subset, each of said N subsets including documents that contain at least one of the top N most frequent values from an indicated field expression.
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25. The media of claim 14 wherein said function comprises a categorize function that returns said indications of said N subsets of said first subset, each of said N subsets including documents identified by determining patterns of name/value pairs that tend to occur together.
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26. The media of claim 14 wherein said function comprises a partition function that returns said indications of said N subsets of said first subset based on the number of the documents that appear in more than one of said N subsets and the number of the documents in each of said N subsets.
Specification