Determining the occurrence of events using decision trees
OwnerKnut Barthelinventor
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
The determination of whether an event, such as a taxable event for a commercial transaction, has occurred uses an executable decision tree. The decision tree includes a number of test nodes that each include a comparison field and at least one allowed value. A data value associated with the comparison field is accessed and compared to the allowed values. If the comparison field equals an allowed value, execution proceeds to a child node, and if not, execution proceeds to a sibling node. The child and sibling nodes are either another test node, a result node, or an error node. Execution of the decision tree proceeds until a result node or an error node is reached.
Claims19
A computer program product, tangibly embodied in an information carrier, for determining whether an event has occurred using a decision tree, the computer program product being operable to cause data processing apparatus to:
- proceed to and execute a first of at least one test node of the decision tree, wherein each of the at least one test node comprises an identification of a comparison field and at least one allowed value, and the execution of each of the at least one test node comprises accessing a data value associated with the comparison field for the test node being executed, determining whether the accessed comparison field data value is equal to any of the at least one allowed value for the test node being executed, and if the comparison field data value equals any of the at least one allowed value, proceeding to a child node of the test node, and if the comparison field data value does not equal any of the at least one allowed value, proceeding to a sibling node of the test node, wherein the child and sibling nodes are either another test node, a result node, or an error node;
- and
- execute any further test node to which execution of the decision tree proceeds until execution proceeds to a result node or an error node.
In a system that determines which of a plurality of different taxable events have occurred for a commercial transaction, a repository of a plurality of executable decision trees, each tree for determining whether a different taxable event has occurred, and each tree comprising:
- at least one executable test node, wherein each executable test node comprises a question to be answered in a determination of whether or not the taxable event corresponding to the tree has occurred, and wherein each executable test node, when executed using information about a specified commercial transaction, yields an answer in one of a first form or a second form, wherein an answer in the first form causes a child node to be executed and an answer in the second form causes a sibling node to be executed, and further wherein each child and sibling node is either another test node, a result node or an error node;
- and
- at least two result nodes corresponding to a determination of whether the taxable event corresponding to the tree has occurred.
A computer-implemented method for generating a user interface for a decision tree, the method comprising:
- associating a decision tree with a series of user interfaces to request decision tree information from a user;
- displaying each user interface in the series of user interfaces associated with a particular decision tree;
- receiving decision tree information from a user using at least one of the user interfaces;
- and
- storing the decision tree information received from the user,
- wherein the decision tree is a series of nodes, each node being one of a test node, a result node, or an error node.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.