Search query generation

• US 7,822,771 B1
• Filed: 09/23/2003
• Issued: 10/26/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 09/23/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Teradata US, Inc. (Teradata Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Teradata US, Inc. (Teradata Corporation)
• Inventors: Stone, Jason A., Terhune, Larry L., Chaves, Michael, Borofsky, Susan Jamie
• Primary Examiner(s): Mofiz; Apu M
• Assistant Examiner(s): Pyo; Monica M
• Application Number:
  US10/668,838
• Time in Patent Office: 2,590 Days
• Field of Search: 707/3, 707/9, 707/102, 707/781, 707/999.004, 707/4, 707/5, 715/764, 715/810, 715/968
• US Class Current: 707/781
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24554 Unary operations; Data partitioning operations
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24575 using context
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/285 Clustering or classification
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99934 Query formulation, input preparation, or translation
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 715/968 interface for database querying and retrieval

Abstract

Methods and systems provide automatic search generation capabilities. A search constraint and a control field identifier are received. A search generating module generates a search that when executed returns records from a data store. The records satisfy the search constraint and have identical values for the control field identifier for unique customer identifications.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for providing a search query residing in a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium and executing on a computer, comprising:

providing, by the computer, an Application Programming Interface (API) for receiving a search constraint and a control field identifier;

providing, by the computer, a search generating module interfaced to the API for automatically generating a search query from the search constraint, the search constraint defines an operand and an operator for the search query being generated and the control field identifier defines a control field of a data store from which search results obtained from executing the search query are to be filtered via a join and the control field identifier is separate and apart from the search constraint;

executing the search query to produce records from the data store, the records representing the search results that satisfy the search constraint and the search results are initially over inclusive indicating that initially there are more of the search results than are necessary to satisfy the search query, the records are then filtered using a control field value assigned to the control field identifier by joining those records from the search results that have identical values as that which is assigned to the control field value to reduce the search results by producing second records, each second record having control field values for the control field identifier that are identical, the search query modified to include a filter that performs the filtering on the records to produce the second records; and

interfacing, by the computer, the records automatically after the search query is executed with a marketing campaign module to generate a customer segmentation population based on a marketing campaign'"'"'s search constraint representing an instance of the search constraint.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising providing, by the computer, a command option within the API to manually execute the search query.

3. The method of claim 2 further comprising presenting, by the computer, the records when the command option is selected.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the providing of the search generating module further includes interfacing the API to the search generating module over a network.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the providing the API further includes interfacing the API to one or more automated applications.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising generating, by the computer, hierarchies from portions of the records when the search query is executed, wherein each hierarchy represents an aspect of the search constraint.

7. A computer implemented search query generation system, comprising:

a search query interface implemented and residing within a non-transitory computer-readable medium and to execute on a computer; and

a search generating module implemented and residing within a non-transitory computer-readable medium and to execute on the computer;

the search query interface is operable to receive a search constraint and a control field identifier, and the search generating module generates a search query by using the search constraint to return records of a data store that satisfy the search constraint, and the search constraint defines a search operand and a search operator and the control field identifier defines a control field of the data store against which search results for the search query are filtered, the search results initially returns records that are over inclusive in terms of information indicating there is initially more of the information than is necessary to satisfy the search query, and the control field identifier is separate and apart from the search constraint, and the control field identifier defines a particular field in the data store that is used as a search filter on the over inclusive records of the search results, the search filter is a join that is performed against the over inclusive records of the search results to obtain second records from the records of the search results, the second records having an identical value as that which is assigned to the control field identifier, the system is interfaced to a customer segmentation module and used to generate a customer segmentation population based on a marketing campaign'"'"'s search constraint representing an instance of the search constraint.

8. The search query generation system of claim 7 wherein the search query interface includes a Graphical User Interface (GUI) application for receiving the search constraint and the control field identifier and an Application Programming Interface (API) that interfaces the GUI application to the search generating module.

9. The search query generation system of claim 7 wherein the search generating module automatically executes the search query and presents the records to the search query interface.

10. The search query generation system of claim 7 wherein the search generating module executes the search query and presents the records to the search query interface when instructed to do so by the search query interface.

11. The search query generation system of claim 10 wherein the search query interface assembles and links the records after the search query is executed into logically related hierarchies and presents the hierarchies within the search query interface.

12. The search query generation system of claim 11 wherein the hierarchies are linked to fields in the data store and can be activated from the search query interface to present different views of the hierarchies.

13. A computer-implemented search query generation system comprising:

a data store implemented and residing within a non-transitory computer-readable medium and accessible via a computer; and

a search generating module implemented and residing within a non-transitory computer-readable medium that generates a search query, the search generating module also executes on the computer;

the search generating module uses a search constraint and a control field identifier to construct the search query and a search filter on search results returned from executing the search query, the search results initially return over inclusive records indicating that there is initially more of the over inclusive records than are necessary to satisfy the search query, and the search query when executed returns the over inclusive records from the data store that satisfy the search constraint, and the search constraint defines at least a search operator and a search operand and the control field identifier defines a control field in the data store against which the over inclusive records of the search results for the search query are filtered and the control field identifier is separate and apart from the search constraint, and the control field identifier defines a particular field in the data store that is used as the search filter on the over inclusive records of the search results, the search filter performs a join against the over inclusive records of the search results to obtain second records having an identical value as that which is assigned to the control field identifier, and the system is interfaced to a customer segmentation module that is used to generate a travel customer segmentation population based on a marketing campaign'"'"'s search constraint representing an instance of the search constraint and wherein the control field identifier is a trip identifier.

14. The search query generation system of claim 13 wherein the marketing campaign'"'"'s search constraint includes at least one of a hotel stay constraint, a rental car constraint, a destination constraint, and a layover constraint.