Parallelized parsing of data in cloud storage

Enacted by a worker k (k=1 to n) of n workers in a distributed computing system, a method of parsing data comprising a plurality of records, the data distributed among a plurality of data storage nodes of the distributed computing system, the method comprising:

• receiving, from a master within the distributed computing system, an assignment to scan a data chunk k at a data storage node at which the data chunk k is stored;
• determining, for the data chunk k, information comprising
• a number of instances of a context-varying symbol in the data chunk k,
• a position in the data chunk k of a first instance of a context-dependent symbol after an even number of instances of the context-varying symbol, the context-dependent symbol having a first, structural meaning in a first context and a second, non-structural meaning in a second context, and
• a position in the data chunk k of a first instance of the context-dependent symbol after an odd number of instances of the context-varying symbol;
• and
• sending, to the master, the information determined.

A distributed computing system, comprising:

• a logic subsystem;
• and
• memory storing instructions executable by the logic subsystem to:
• for each data chunk k (k=1 through n) on n data chunks, assign a worker k to scan the data chunk at a data storage node at which the data chunk k is stored, wherein each of one or more data chunks comprises a partial record;
• receive, from each worker k,
• a number of instances of a context-varying symbol in the data chunk k,
• a position in the data chunk k of a first instance of a context-dependent symbol after an even number of instances of the context-varying symbol, the context-dependent symbol having a first, structural meaning in a first context and a second, non-structural meaning in a second context, and
• a position in the data chunk k of a first instance of the context-dependent symbol after an odd number of instances of the context-varying symbol;
• for each data chunk that comprises a partial record, compute an adjusted data chunk, the adjusted data chunk comprising data from a later data chunk to complete the partial record;
• and
• after completing all partial records, parse the adjusted data chunks.