SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR GENERATING AN OPTIMIZED OUTPUT RANGE FOR A DATA DISTRIBUTION IN A HIERARCHICAL DATABASE

• US 20110131220A1
• Filed: 11/30/2009
• Published: 06/02/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 11/30/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Eric Williamson
• Original Assignee: Eric Williamson
• Inventors: Williamson, Eric
• Granted Patent: US 8,396,880 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/755
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/283 Multi-dimensional databases or data warehouses, e.g. MOLAP or ROLAP
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/83 Querying

Abstract

Embodiments relate to systems and methods for generating an optimized output range for a data distribution in a hierarchical database. A data store can store data in a hierarchical format, for instance, in a tree. Higher-level data, such as yearly profit, may be desired to be spread from parent nodes to lower nodes, such as nodes representing quarters. A spreading tool can insert child nodes representing quarters, months, or other at insertion point(s) represented or encoded by a set of placeholder nodes, dividing quantities appropriately. In aspects, the spreading tool can access multiple sets of spreading rules which govern the distribution of data from higher level nodes to lower level nodes. In aspects, the spreading tool can conduct multiple passes of data distribution using different sets of spreading rules, capturing the outputs expressed in the child nodes and selecting rule sets which produce a desired deviation, range, or other characteristics.

Claims

1. A method of processing data, comprising:

receiving a set of data to be inserted in a hierarchical database;

associating a set of child nodes with at least one parent node in the hierarchical database;

accessing a plurality of sets of spreading rules to distribute data from the at least one parent node to the corresponding set of child nodes;

executing a series of distributions of the data from the at least one parent node to the corresponding set of child nodes based on the plurality of sets of spreading rules;

capturing a range of outputs extracted from the set of child nodes based on the series of distributions; and

generating selected sets of spreading rules from the plurality of sets of spreading rules based on the range of outputs.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of sets of spreading rules comprises at least one of a set of rules related to data dependencies in the set of data, a set of rules related to the formatting of the set of data, and a set of rules related to routing of output of the set of child nodes to other nodes.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the plurality of sets of spreading rules comprises a set of rules related to data dependencies in the set of data, and the set of rules related to data dependencies in the set of data comprises a set of sequence rules specifying an order of distribution of the set of data to the set of child nodes.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the distributing the set of data comprises distributing the set of data via a set of placeholder nodes associated with the at least one parent node.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the set of placeholder nodes encode a set of inheritance classes defining the set of child nodes.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the set of data comprises at least one of medical, technical, scientific, or financial data.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the hierarchical database comprises at least one of an online analytical processing (OLAP) data source or an extensible markup language (XML)-based data source.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one parent node comprises a plurality of parent nodes.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein generating selected sets of spreading rules comprises selecting at least one set of spreading rules whose range of extracted outputs from the set of child nodes fall within a predetermined range.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the predetermined range is based on a deviation measure between the range of outputs extracted from the set of child nodes based on the series of distributions.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein predetermined range is based on a threshold applied to the range of outputs extracted from the set of child nodes based on the series of distributions.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein generating selected sets of spreading rules comprises selecting a subset of the plurality of sets of spreading rules.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein generating selected sets of spreading rules comprises generating an ordered sequence of the selected sets of spreading rules.

14. A system for database operations, comprising:

an interface to at least one hierarchical database;

a database engine, communicating with the interface, the database engine being configured to—

receive a set of data to be inserted in a hierarchical database,

associate a set of child nodes with at least one parent node in the hierarchical database,

access a plurality of sets of spreading rules to distribute data from the at least one parent node to the corresponding set of child nodes,

execute a series of distributions of the data from the at least one parent node to the corresponding set of child nodes based on the plurality of sets of spreading rules,

capture a range of outputs extracted from the set of child nodes based on the series of distributions, and

generate selected sets of spreading rules from the plurality of sets of spreading rules based on the range of outputs.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the distributing the set of data comprises distributing the set of data via a set of placeholder nodes associated with the at least one parent node.

16. The system of claim 14, wherein generating selected sets of spreading rules comprises selecting at least one set of spreading rules whose range of extracted outputs from the set of child nodes fall within a predetermined range.

17. The system of claim 14, wherein the predetermined range is based on a deviation measure between the range of outputs extracted from the set of child nodes based on the series of distributions.

18. The system of claim 14, wherein predetermined range is based on a threshold applied to the range of outputs extracted from the set of child nodes based on the series of distributions.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein generating selected sets of spreading rules comprises generating an ordered sequence of the selected sets of spreading rules.

20. A hierarchical database stored in a computer readable storage medium, the hierarchical database being generated by a method of:

receiving a set of data to be inserted in the hierarchical database;

associating a set of child nodes with at least one parent node in the hierarchical database;

accessing a plurality of sets of spreading rules to distribute data from the at least one parent node to the corresponding set of child nodes;

executing a series of distributions of the data from the at least one parent node to the corresponding set of child nodes based on the plurality of sets of spreading rules;

capturing a range of outputs extracted from the set of child nodes based on the series of distributions; and

generating selected sets of spreading rules from the plurality of sets of spreading rules based on the range of outputs.