Method and system for data analysis

• US 8,347,204 B2
• Filed: 03/03/2009
• Issued: 01/01/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 05/05/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Drinking Bird Software Limited
• Original Assignee: Norm Rosner
• Inventors: Rosner, Norm
• Primary Examiner(s): Patel, Manglesh M
• Application Number:
  US12/396,577
• Publication Number:
  US 20090276692A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,400 Days
• Field of Search: 715/212, 715/220, 715/200, 715/227
• US Class Current: 715/227
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2456 Join operations
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2465 Query processing support for facilitating data mining operations in structured databases
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/177 of tables; using ruled lines

Abstract

A data analysis and display system and method for performing a plurality of operations on data arranged in data tables. One or more of the following data operations are provided: combining separate data together, for example by joining and appending; normalizing and summarizing; copying; calculating and presenting new information from existing data; making corrections in a persistent manner, and analyzing the data, to allow users to work with their data at a high level using a core set of functions that facilitate performance of these operations in a generally simple, intuitive manner.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method, executed in a processor, of joining a target table and a source table, the target table and the source table each comprising a plurality of cells arranged in rows and columns, each cell in the plurality of cells being capable of including data, the method comprising:

designating certain ones of the columns of the source table as source key columns;

assigning corresponding ones of the columns of the target table as target key columns thereby creating a one to one correspondence between each source key column and each of the assigned ones of the target key columns;

associating each row of the target table with the source table rows based on the condition that data included in the cells therein and in each source key column is identical to data included in the cells of the target table rows and the corresponding target key column; and

populating, into cells of conjoined columns appended onto the target table, data identical to data in cells from corresponding source table columns and from source table rows associated with the target table rows;

thereby creating a joined table comprising the target table with the conjoined columns appended onto the target table;

displaying, on a single user interface screen, a target table icon representative of the target table, and a source table icon representative of the source table;

receiving a drag and drop selection of the source table icon onto the target table icon;

receiving a selection for the source key columns of the source table;

receiving a selection for the target key columns of the target table;

thereby to create the joined table; and

displaying a visual directional link between the source table icon and the icon representative of the target table.

2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

changing, adding or removing data in at least one cell of the source table; and

updating the data in the joined table.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising displaying the conjoined data from the source table in a first visual style, and displaying the data of the target table in a second visual style.

4. The method of claim 3 further wherein the first visual style comprises a first graphical icon and the second visual style comprises a second graphical icon.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the source table is selected from the group consisting of a manual input table, an electronic spreadsheet input table and a database input table.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

providing a user option to correct data in a cell of a target table row and of a target key column; and

updating conjoined data of the target table row to reflect the source table data which matches the corrected data of the cell of the target table row.

7. A computer implemented method, executed in a processor, of creating a resultant table based on a source table comprising a plurality of rows and columns comprising cells capable of including data values, the method comprising:

selecting a first one or more columns of the source table as key columns;

selecting a second one or more columns of the source table as summarization columns;

consolidating redundant data values in the key columns to a single set of key data values;

aggregating data values in the summarization columns associated with the single set of key data values to provide an aggregated value corresponding to the single set of key data values, wherein aggregating one or more data values comprises selecting a single representative data value from the one or more data values based on a selection rule;

thereby to create the resultant table comprising the set of key data values with the aggregated data values from the summarization columns, wherein data values of the resultant table are dynamically refreshed as changes are made to the source table based on a flag indicating objects for refresh.

8. The method according to claim 7, further comprising:

providing a user option to add, delete and/or correct values in the key columns and in the summarization columns; and

reflecting the corrected key column values and aggregated values in the summarized table.

9. The method of claim 7 wherein the source table is selected from the group consisting of a manual input table, an electronic spreadsheet input table and a database input table.

10. The method of claim 7 further comprising:

selecting a first one or more rows of the resultant table;

selecting a second row of the resultant table; and

combining the first one or more rows with the second row, so that only the second selected row is present in the resultant table; and

recalculating the aggregated values in the resultant table which are associated with the second row to include data values from the summarization columns corresponding to any one of the rows in the first and second selections of rows.

11. The method of claim 7 wherein the selected key columns comprise a plurality of columns and the rows of the resultant table are divided into groups of rows which have identical values for at least one but less than all of the selected key columns, and a row header is displayed in the resultant table for each of the groups of rows, the system further comprising:

receiving a first selection of one or more rows of the resultant table;

receiving a second selection of one row header of the resultant table; and

moving the first selection of one or more rows to associate them with the second selection in.

12. The system method of claim 7 wherein the selected key columns include a plurality of columns, the rows in the resultant table being divided into groups of rows which have identical values for at least one but not all of the selected key columns, and wherein a row header is displayed in the resultant table for each of the groups of rows, the system further comprising:

selecting a first one or more row headers in the resultant table;

selecting a second row header in the resultant table; and

combining the first selection of one or more row headers with the second selection of the row header, so that only the selected second row header is present in the resultant table;

wherein all rows associated with the first one or more row headers are re-associated with the selected second row header.

13. A computer implemented method, executed in a processor, of creating a resultant table based on a source table comprising a plurality of rows and columns comprising cells capable of including data values, the method comprising:

selecting a first one or more columns of the source table as key columns;

selecting a second one or more columns of the source table as summarization columns;

consolidating redundant data values in the key columns to a single set of key data values;

aggregating data values in the summarization columns associated with the single set of key data values to provide an aggregated value corresponding to the single set of key data values, wherein aggregating one or more data values comprises mathematically aggregating the one or more data values, thereby creating the resultant table;

selecting a first one or more rows of the resultant table;

selecting a second row of the resultant table;

combining the first one or more rows with the second row, so that only the second selected row is present in the resultant table; and

recalculating the aggregated values in the resultant table which are associated with the second row to include data values from the summarization columns corresponding to any one of the rows in the first and second selections of rows;

wherein data values of the resultant table are dynamically refreshed as changes are made to the source table based on a flag indicating objects for refresh.