Selection of attribute combination aggregations

• US 7,836,052 B2
• Filed: 03/28/2006
• Issued: 11/16/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 03/28/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Atur, Balachandran K.
• Primary Examiner(s): FILIPCZYK, MARCIN R
• Application Number:
  US11/391,079
• Publication Number:
  US 20070239657A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,694 Days
• Field of Search: 707 1- 10, 707100-102, 707/200, 707/737, 707/752, 707/999.001, 707/999.003, 707/999.006, 707/999.007, 707/999.01, 707/999.1, 707/999.101, 707/999.102, 705/1
• US Class Current: 707/737
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/22 Indexing; Data structures therefor; Storage structures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/283 Multi-dimensional databases or data warehouses, e.g. MOLAP or ROLAP
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99936 Pattern matching access
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99942 Manipulating data structure, e.g. compression, compaction, compilation

Abstract

Implementations of various technologies and techniques for method for selecting an interesting attribute combination aggregation. In one implementation, an attribute combination aggregation may be generated. One or more values in the attribute combination aggregation may be statistically analyzed. The attribute combination aggregation may be determined as interesting based on the statistical analysis. The interesting attribute combination aggregation may then be stored.

Claims

1. A method for displaying an interesting subset of a plurality of aggregations of data comprising:

preprocessing the plurality of aggregations by an online analytical processing (OLAP) engine designed to operate on multidimensional data structures, the preprocessing comprising;

receiving from a server a plurality of dimensions, a first order in which the dimensions are to be evaluated, a plurality of attributes, and a second order in which the attributes are to be evaluated, wherein the dimensions, the attributes, the first order and the second order describe properties of the plurality of aggregations;

generating the plurality of aggregations based on the plurality of dimensions, the plurality of attributes, the first order and the second order received from said server;

statistically analyzing and identifying a subset of the plurality of aggregations as the interesting subset of the plurality of aggregations, wherein each aggregation in the interesting subset has (i) one or more values that fall outside a predetermined boundary of a standard deviation, (ii) a ratio between one or more maximum values and one or more minimum values that exceeds a first predetermined value, and (iii) a difference between the maximum values and the minimum values that exceeds a second predetermined value;

storing the interesting subset of the plurality of aggregations in a database;

analyzing the plurality of aggregations based on a received query; and

displaying the interesting subset of the plurality of aggregations in response to the received query.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein preprocessing the plurality of aggregations further comprises identifying a subset of the plurality of aggregations as an uninteresting subset, wherein each aggregation in the uninteresting subset has one or more values that fall within the predetermined boundary of the standard deviation.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising discarding the uninteresting subset.

4. The method of claim 2, further comprising retaining the uninteresting subset for future generation of aggregations.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising reading data from a database management system in response to receiving the dimensions and the attributes.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of aggregations is generated by the (OLAP) engine configured to provide rapid ad-hoc information retrieval.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the online analytical processing engine is a high-capacity, multi-user data manipulation engine designed to support and operate on one or more multidimensional data structures.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein each multidimensional data structure is arranged such that each datum in the data is located and accessed based on an intersection of the dimensions that defines a corresponding datum.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the dimensions comprise a geographical location, a time or a product type.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the attributes comprise a measurement unit of the geographical location, the time, or the product type.

11. A computer-readable medium including computer storage media having stored thereon computer-executable instructions which, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to:

preprocess a plurality of aggregations by an online analytical processing (OLAP) engine designed to operate on multidimensional data structures, the preprocess comprising;

receiving from a server a plurality of dimensions, a first order in which the dimensions are to be evaluated, a plurality of attributes, and a second order in which the attributes are to be evaluated, wherein the dimensions, the attributes, the first order and the second order describe properties of the plurality of aggregations;

generating the plurality of aggregations based on the plurality of dimensions, the plurality of attributes, the first order and the second order received from said server;

statistically analyzing and identifying a subset of the plurality of aggregations as an interesting subset of the plurality of aggregations, wherein each aggregation in the interesting subset has (i) one or more values that fall outside a predetermined boundary of a standard deviation, has (ii) a ratio between one or more maximum values and one or more minimum values that exceed a first predetermined value, and (iii) a difference between the maximum values and the minimum values that exceeds a second predetermined value;

storing the interesting subset of the plurality of aggregations in a database;

analyzing the plurality of aggregations based on a received query; and

display the interesting subset of the plurality of aggregations in response to the received query.

12. The computer-readable medium of claim 11, wherein the computer-executable instructions which, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to preprocess the plurality of aggregations further comprises computer-executable instructions configured to identify a subset of the plurality of aggregations as an uninteresting subset, wherein each aggregation in the uninteresting subset has one or more values that fall within a predetermined boundary of a standard deviation.

13. A computer system, comprising:

a processor; and

a memory comprising program instructions executable by the processor to;

preprocess a plurality of aggregations by an online analytical processing (OLAP) engine designed to operate on multidimensional data structures, the preprocess comprising;

receiving from a server a plurality of dimensions, a first order in which the dimensions are to be evaluated, a plurality of attributes, and a second order in which the attributes are to be evaluated, wherein the dimensions, the attributes, the first order and the second order describe properties of the plurality of aggregations;

generating the plurality of aggregations based on the dimensions, the attributes, the first order and the second order received from said server;

statistically analyzing and identifying a subset of the plurality of aggregations as an interesting subset, wherein each aggregation in the interesting subset has (i) one or more values that fall outside a predetermined boundary of a standard deviation, (ii) a ratio between one or more maximum values and one or more minimum values that exceeds a first predetermined value, and (iii) a difference between one or more maximum values and one or more minimum values that exceeds a second predetermined value; and

store the interesting subset of the plurality of aggregations in a database;

analyzing the plurality of aggregations in response to a received query; and

display the interesting subset of the plurality of aggregations in response to the received query.