Apparatus, system, and method for sorting character representations of data

• US 7,289,991 B2
• Filed: 06/04/2004
• Issued: 10/30/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 06/04/2004
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Smith, Alan Ray
• Primary Examiner(s): Mofiz; Apu
• Assistant Examiner(s): Bibbee; Jared M
• Application Number:
  US10/861,732
• Publication Number:
  US 20050278330A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,243 Days
• Field of Search: 707/100, 707/103, 707/1, 707/6, 707/7, 707/101
• US Class Current: 707/753
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 7/24 Sorting, i.e. extracting data from one or more carriers, rearranging the data in numerical or other ordered sequence, and rerecording the sorted data on the original carrier or on a different carrier or set of carriers sorting methods in generalG06F7/36 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99937 Sorting
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99943 Generating database or data structure, e.g. via user interface

Abstract

An apparatus, system, and method are disclosed for sorting character representations of data under the present invention, a character-encoded sort data value is identified in a data line of a data set. The sort data value is a character encoding of a predefined numbering system such as hexadecimal or binary encoding. The sort data value is then converted to a predefined encoding scheme and the data set is sorted based on the converted sort data value. A cycle number may be appended to the sort data value to maintain the order of the sort data values when the sort data values wrap. One embodiment identifies and removes delimiters such as titles from the data set and are inserted into the sorted data set.

Claims

1. An apparatus to sort character representations of data, the apparatus comprising:

an identity module configured to identify character-encoded sort data values in a plurality of data lines of a data set wherein each data line has one sort data value, the sort data values comprising a character representation of hexadecimal fixed-digit numeric data encoded according to an Extended Binary Coded Decimal Interchange Code set such that each character digit in the character representation corresponds to a hexadecimal numeric digit, wherein the sort data values comprise fixed-digit sequential data;

a conversion module configured to convert the sort data values from the character representation to hexadecimal fixed-digit numeric data and append a cycle number to the sort data value as a most significant value, the cycle number representative of a subsequent set of sequential data for which the value is greater than sequential data within a previous set of sequential data such that the sort data values wrap, the sets of sequential data defined by the fixed-digit size of the sort data value; and

a sort module configured to sort the data lines using the converted sort data and render the sorted data lines on an output device.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the conversion module is further configured to calculate an absolute value of the difference between a first sort data value of a first data line and a second sort data value of a second data line and to increment the cycle number of the second sort data value by an increment value in response to the first sort data value exceeding the second sort data value and the absolute value of the difference exceeding a next-wrap threshold and to further decrement the cycle number of the second sort data value by the increment value in response to the second sort data value exceeding the first sort data value and the difference exceeding a pre-wrap threshold.

3. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the conversion module is further configured to calculate the pre-wrap threshold and the next-wrap threshold from the fixed-digit size of the first sort data value.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, the sort module further configured to:

identify a delimiter and a delimiter offset within the plurality of data lines of a data set;

remove the delimiter from the data set; and

insert the delimiter into the sorted data lines in accordance with the delimiter offset.

5. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein the sort module is further configured to receive delimiter identifiers.

6. A system to sort character representations of data, the system comprising:

a memory configured to store and retrieve data;

a processor having,

an identity module configured to identify character-encoded sort data values in a plurality of data lines of a data set wherein each data line has one sort data value, the sort data values comprising a character representation of hexadecimal fixed-digit numeric data encoded according to an Extended Binary Coded Decimal Interchange Code set such that each character digit in the character representation corresponds to a hexadecimal numeric digit, wherein the sort data values comprise fixed-digit sequential data;

a conversion module configured to convert the sort data values from the character representation to hexadecimal fixed-digit numeric data, append a cycle number to the sort data value as a most significant value, the cycle number representative of a subsequent set of sequential data for which the value is greater than sequential data within a previous set of sequential data such that the sort data values wrap, the sets of sequential data defined by the fixed-digit size of the sort data value, and store the converted sort data as an identity data value;

a sort module configured to sort the data lines using the identity data value; and

an output device configured to render the sorted data set.

7. The system of claim 6, the conversion module further configured to calculate an absolute value of the difference between a first identity data value of a first data line and a second identity data value of a second data line and to increment the cycle number of the second identity data value by an increment value in response to the first identity data value exceeding the second identity data value and the absolute value of the difference exceeding a next-wrap threshold and to further decrement the cycle number of the second identity data value by the increment value in response to the second identity data value exceeding the first identity data value and the absolute value of the difference exceeding a pre-wrap threshold.

8. The system of claim 7, the conversion module further configured to calculate the pre-wrap threshold and the next-wrap threshold from the fixed-digit size of the first identity data value.

9. The system of claim 8, the sort module further configured to:

identify a delimiter and a delimiter offset within the plurality of data lines of a data set;

remove the delimiter from the data set; and

insert the delimiter into the sorted data lines in accordance with the delimiter offset.

10. A computer-readable storage medium tangibly embodying a program of machine-readable instructions executable by a digital processing apparatus to perform operations to sort character representations of data, the operations comprising:

identifying a character-encoded sort data value in a plurality of data lines of a data set wherein each data line has one sort data value, the sort data value comprising a character representation of hexadecimal fixed-digit numeric data encoded according to an Extended Binary Coded Decimal Interchange Code set such that each character digit in the character representation corresponds to a hexadecimal numeric digit, wherein the sort data values comprise fixed-digit sequential data;

converting the sort data value from the character representation to data encoded according to hexadecimal fixed-digit numeric data;

appending a cycle number to the sort data value as a most significant value, the cycle number representative of a subsequent set of sequential data for which the value is greater than sequential data within a previous set of sequential data such that the sort data values wrap, the sets of sequential data defined by the fixed-digit size of the sort data value;

sorting the data lines using the converted sort data value; and

rendering the sorted data lines on an output device.

11. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 10, wherein the instructions further comprise operations to calculate an absolute value of the difference between a first sort data value of a first data line and a second sort data value of a second data line and to increment the cycle number of the second sort data value by an increment value in response to the first sort data value exceeding the second sort data value and the absolute value of the difference exceeding a next-wrap threshold and to further decrement the cycle number of the second sort data value by the increment value in response to the second sort data value exceeding the first sort data value and the absolute value of the difference exceeding a pre-wrap threshold.

12. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 11, wherein the instructions further comprise operations to selectively calculate the pre-wrap threshold and the next-wrap threshold from the fixed-digit size of the first sort data value.

13. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 10, wherein the instructions further comprise operations to:

identify a delimiter and a delimiter offset within the plurality of data lines of a data set;

remove the delimiter from the data set; and

insert the delimiter into the sorted data lines in accordance with the delimiter offset.

14. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein the instructions further comprise operations to receive delimiter identifiers.

15. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein the instructions further comprise operations to prompt a user to confirm a valid delimiter.