Domain specific language design

A method for use with a textual data set representing text, the method comprising:

• iteratively receiving user selection data sets, with each user selection data set including:
• (i) an identification of a portion of text included in the textual data set, and
• (ii) an annotation assigned to the respectively associated portion of text, with each annotation including at least one of the following types of annotation value:
• value, identifier, block;
• wherein the block annotation comprises an optional block annotation that indicates that a particular portion of text to be used to form a specific grammar rule indicates that the associated portion of text will not be included in an instance within the textual data set and will be included in an instance within the textual data set, wherein said annotation comprises a block to denote a sub-portion of said at least one statement for a particular purpose and wherein said block comprises a multiple block where said block can occur multiple times within said statement;
• identifying, in the text represented by the textuai data set, a plurality of common elements of text;
• responsive to the iterative receipt of the user selection data sets, building a target language based, at least in part upon the plurality of common elements of text;
• responsive to receipt of each given user selection data set, computing a grammar using the portion of text and the annotations provided by the given user selection data set;
• and
• wherein the user selection data sets are used for:
• parsing the statement using the grammar;
• creating a table with the columns, using the information extracted from the parsing the statement wherein each entry of the table corresponds to the statement.