Compact item descriptor, catalog system and item part number validation

A method executed by a computer to generate in a database system a compact item descriptor, a machine readable character string, the method comprising the steps:

• providing a first item;
• providing a classification tree as a recursive structure in the database comprising a root parent fork with child branches to child forks with child branches or child leaves each with a set of parameters which classifies a set of items including the first item where two different items that classify to the same child leaf and parameter values are interchangeable or those that do not classify to the same child leaf and parameter values are not interchangeable;
• labeling by the computer, at each fork of the classification tree, a character or sub-string of characters that distinguishes each child branch or child leaf of the fork;
• generating a commodity code, a character string that uniquely identifies the sequence of child branches and child leaf selected for the classification of an item represented by the child leaf, starting at the root of the classification tree with a character string representing the root and systematically appending the label representing the child branch or child leaf selected at each fork to classify the item;
• ordering the set of parameters for each child leaf that complete the description of an item classified at the child leaf and encoding the value for each parameter as a string of predefined length in the ordered parameter sequence such that the parameter values for an item classified at the child leaf are represented as a character string;
• generating the commodity code for the first item;
• encoding the parameter values at the child leaf for the first item;
• defining the compact item descriptor for the first item as the commodity code for the first item concatenated with the encoded parameter values for the first item;
• generating the compact item descriptor for the first item;
• generating a compact item descriptor for a second item;
• comparing, by the computer, the compact item descriptor for the second item with the compact item descriptor for the first item;
• and determining the interchangeability of the first item and second item wherein if the compact item descriptors are the same then the items are interchangeable and if the compact item descriptors are different then the items are not interchangeable.

A method executed by a computer to encode in a database system the classification and parameter values of an item into a machine readable character string where two items with the same classification and parameter values encode the same string or two items with different classifications or parameter values encode different strings, the method comprising:

• providing a first item;
• providing a second item;
• providing a classification tree as a recursive database structure comprising a root parent fork with child branches to child forks with child branches or child leaves each with a set of parameters where the classification tree classifies a set of items including the first item and second item;
• labeling by the computer, at each fork of the classification tree, a character or sub-string of characters that distinguishes each child branch or child leaf of the fork;
• generating a commodity code, a character string that uniquely identifies the sequence of child branches and child leaf selected for the classification of an item represented by the child leaf, starting at the root of the classification tree with a character string representing the root and systematically appending the label representing the child branch or child leaf selected at each fork to classify the item;
• ordering the set of parameters for each child leaf that complete the description of an item classified at the child leaf and encoding the value for each parameter as a string of predefined length in the ordered parameter sequence such that the parameter values for an item classified at the leaf are represented as a character string;
• generating the commodity code for the first item;
• encoding the parameter values at the leaf for the first item;
• generating the encoded string for the first item as the commodity code for the first item concatenated with the encoded parameter values for the first item;
• generating the commodity code for the second item;
• encoding the parameter values at the leaf for the second item;
• generating the encoded string for the second item as the commodity code for the second item concatenated with the encoded parameter values for the second item;
• comparing, by the computer, the encoded string for the first item with the encoded string for the second item where either the encoded strings are the same and the first item and second item classify to the same child leaf with the same parameter values or the encoded strings are different and the first item and second item do not classify to the same child leaf with the same parameter values.