Method and system for aggregating tables having dissimilar formats
First Claim
1. A method for aggregating tables in a computer system running a program, wherein the program uses tables to store and manipulate data, each table consisting of a grid of intersecting rows and columns, and where each column has a heading called a division and each row has a heading called a category, said method comprising the steps of:
- (a) specifying a plurality of source tables for aggregation, each source table having at least one category and division;
(b) generating a destination table template, said destination table template specifying desired categories and divisions of said source tables to be aggregated into a destination table;
(c) creating a category mapping list that maps categories of said source tables to corresponding categories of said destination table template;
(d) creating a division mapping list that maps divisions of said source tables to corresponding divisions of said destination table template; and
(e) applying the category mapping list and the division mapping list to said destination table.
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Accused Products
Abstract
The present invention contemplates a method and system for automatically aggregating tables having a variety of configurations or layouts into a single destination table. Specifically, tables having a variety of categories with multiple divisions within those categories may be combined wherein rows and columns are automatically created in a destination table based on the categories and divisions of one or more source tables. In accordance with the teachings of the present invention, a plurality of source tables are selected as input to the system. A template containing categories and divisions for aggregation is then manually generated by a user or automatically generated by the computer system based on the categories and divisions contained within the source tables. Once the template is generated, mapping tables for rows and columns are created wherein each mapping table comprises an array of pairs of values wherein each pair comprises a first value for identifying a source table location and a second value for identifying a template location. The system then generates a single destination table by applying the mapping tables and by performing the desired mathematical function on the values in the source and destination tables (e.g., summing the values in the appropriate locations in the source and destination tables).
131 Citations
17 Claims
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1. A method for aggregating tables in a computer system running a program, wherein the program uses tables to store and manipulate data, each table consisting of a grid of intersecting rows and columns, and where each column has a heading called a division and each row has a heading called a category, said method comprising the steps of:
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(a) specifying a plurality of source tables for aggregation, each source table having at least one category and division; (b) generating a destination table template, said destination table template specifying desired categories and divisions of said source tables to be aggregated into a destination table; (c) creating a category mapping list that maps categories of said source tables to corresponding categories of said destination table template; (d) creating a division mapping list that maps divisions of said source tables to corresponding divisions of said destination table template; and (e) applying the category mapping list and the division mapping list to said destination table. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3)
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4. A computer system for aggregating tables, the computer system running a program, the program using tables to store and manipulate data, each table consisting of a grid of intersecting rows and columns, each column having a heading called a division and each row having a heading called a category, the system comprising:
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(a) input means for specifying a plurality of source tables for aggregation, each source table having at least one category and division; (b) means for generating a destination table template, said destination table template specifying desired categories and divisions of said source tables to be aggregated into a destination table; (c) means for creating a category mapping list that maps categories of said source tables to corresponding categories of said destination table template; (d) means for creating a division mapping list that maps divisions of said source tables to corresponding divisions of said destination table template; and (e) means for applying the category mapping list and the division mapping list to said destination table.
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5. A computer system for aggregating tables, each table having an intersecting grid of rows and columns and each table having a format defined by the rows and columns in the table, the system comprising:
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(a) a plurality of source tables for storing data, at least one of said source tables having a different format than other source tables; (b) a destination table template for specifying the rows and columns from said source tables to be aggregated; and (c) means for aggregating said source tables into a destination table, the destination table having the same format as the destination table template. - View Dependent Claims (6)
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7. A method for combining tables in a computer system running a program, wherein the program uses tables to store data, wherein each table contains a grid of intersecting columns and rows, wherein the intersection of each column and row is a cell capable of containing data, said method comprising the steps of:
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specifying a plurality of source tables to be combined such that each source table column has a heading called a division and each source table row has a heading called a category and at least one source table has a different format than other source tables; and generating a destination table, the destination table containing divisions and categories from the source tables in addition to data that is derived from data contained in cells form the source tables. - View Dependent Claims (8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13)
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14. A method for aggregating a plurality of disparate source tables into a destination table in a computer system running a program, wherein the program uses the plurality of disparate source tables to store and manipulate data, wherein each table contains a grid of intersecting columns and rows, wherein each column contains a column label and data, and each row contains a row label and data, the method comprising the steps of:
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a) selecting the plurality of source tables, each source table comprising at least one column label and at least one row label; b) determining which column and row labels from the plurality of source tables will be represented within the destination table; and c) for each source table, creating a column mapping list, the mapping list containing a list of paired entries (sc,dc), each sc representing a source table column label and each dc representing a destination table column label such that the data in the represented source table column will be stored in the represented destination table column, creating a row mapping list, the row mapping list containing a list of paired entries (sr,dr), each sr representing a source table row label and each dr representing a destination table row label such that the data in the represented source table row will be stored in the represented destination table row, and adding data from the source table to the destination table in accordance with the column and row mapping lists, the column and row mapping lists supplying the correct destination column dc and destination row dr for storing data contained within a source table column sc and source table row sr. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16, 17)
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Specification