Method, apparatus and software for processing data encoded as one or more data elements in a data format

• US 8,250,115 B2
• Filed: 07/21/2008
• Issued: 08/21/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 08/10/2007
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Bittles, William, Partridge, Lucas W.
• Primary Examiner(s): Ng, Amy
• Application Number:
  US12/176,788
• Publication Number:
  US 20090043807A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,492 Days
• Field of Search: 707/809, 707/802, 707/803, 707/804, 707/755, 715/239, 715/242, 715/241, 715/249
• US Class Current: 707/803
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/81 Indexing, e.g. XML tags; Data structures therefor; Storage structures

Abstract

A method, system and a program product for processing data is disclosed. The method, system and program product disclosed herein comprises processing data encoded as one or more data elements in a data format. The data format is further processed by a parser to extract the encoded data elements. The data is encoded as multiple data elements in accordance with the first data format and saved to a file in the memory. An unique index is created to each data element indicating the locations of data elements in the file. The index is associated with the file and index is arranged to enable the extraction of data elements directly from the file in memory. The index is embedded in a art of the file and is not used by the parser for extracting the data elements from the file.

Claims

1. A method for processing data encoded as one or more data elements in a data format, said data format being arranged for further processing by a parser to extract said encoded data elements, said method comprising the steps of:

encoding data as one or more data elements in accordance with a first data format, wherein said first data format is a meta data language in which meta data elements are associated with said data elements in said encoded data;

saving said encoded data to a file in a memory;

creating an index of said data elements, said index indicating the locations of one or more of said data elements within said file, wherein said index is an offset index, wherein said index is embedded in a comment, wherein said index indexes said meta data elements to the respective locations of said associated data elements within said file;

extracting said data elements from said file in said memory using said index; and

associating said index with said file, wherein said index is embedded in a part of said file that is not used by said parser for extraction of said data elements from said file.

2. A method according to claim 1 in which said data format is a mark-up language.

3. A method according to claim 1 in which said data format is XML.

4. A method according to claim 1 in which said index is appended to said encoded data in said file.

5. A method according to claim 1 in which the location of said index within said file is indicated by data element in said file.

6. A method according to claim 1 in which an index entry is created for each occurrence of each data element.

7. A computer implemented system for processing data encoded as one or more data elements in a data format, said data format being arranged for further processing by a parser to extract said encoded data elements, said computer implemented system comprising a processor being operable to:

encode data as one or more data elements in accordance with a first data format, wherein said first data format is a meta data language in which meta data elements are associated with said data elements in said encoded data;

save said encoded data to a file in a memory;

create an index of said data elements, said index indicating the locations of one or more of said data elements within said file, wherein said index is an offset index, wherein said index is embedded in a comment, wherein said index indexes said meta data elements to the respective locations of said associated data elements within said file;

extract said data elements from said file in said memory using said index; and

associate said index with said file, wherein said index is embedded in a part of said file that is not used by said parser for extraction of said data elements from said file.

8. A computer implemented system according to claim 7 in which said data format is XML.

9. A computer implemented system according to claim 7 in which said index is appended to said encoded data in said file.

10. A computer implemented system according to claim 7 in which the location of said index within said file is indicated by data element in said file.

11. A computer implemented system according to claim 7 in which an index entry is created for each occurrence of each data element.

12. A group of one or more programs digitally encoded in a non-transitory storage medium arranged to enable a group of one or more programmable devices to perform steps comprising:

encoding data as one or more data elements in accordance with a first data format, wherein said first data format is a meta data language in which meta data elements are associated with said data elements in said encoded data;

saving said encoded data to a file in memory;

creating an index of said data elements, said index indicating the locations of one or more of said data elements within said file, wherein said index is an offset index, wherein said index is embedded in a comment, wherein said index indexes said meta data elements to the respective locations of said associated data elements within said file;

extracting said data elements from said file in said memory using said index; and

associating said index with said file, wherein said index is embedded in a part of said file that is not used by said parser for extraction of said data elements from said file.