US 8,620,946 B2Granted

Storage and searching of temporal entity information

AssigneeSap SE

InventorBruno Dumant

Life of this patent

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Abstract

A system may include determination of a plurality of data structures associated with an entity, each of the plurality of data structures associated with a respective validity period, determination of a plurality of non-overlapping time periods based on the validity periods, the plurality of non-overlapping time periods collectively spanning all of the validity periods, determination, for each of the plurality of non-overlapping time periods, of a composite data structure based on each of the data structures associated with a validity period including the non-overlapping time period, assignment of a respective document identifier to each composite data structure, each document identifier indicating the entity, and indexing of the composite data structures within an index.

Claims15

Dependent claims

A method implemented by a computing system in response to execution of program code by a processor of the computing system, the method comprising:

determining a first data structure associated with an entity and a second data structure associated with the entity, the first data structure associated with a first validity period and the second data structure associated with a second validity period, the first validity period different from the second validity period, and the first validity period and the second validity period sharing a common third period;
determining a plurality of non-overlapping time periods based on the first validity period and the second validity period, the plurality of non-overlapping time periods comprising a first non-overlapping time period from a beginning of the first validity period to a beginning of the common third period, a second non-overlapping time period equal to the common third period, and a third non-overlapping time period from an end of the common third period to an end of the second validity period;
determining a first composite data structure associated with the first non-overlapping time period based on the first data structure;
determining a second composite data structure associated with the second non-overlapping time period based on the first data structure and on the second data structure;
determining a third composite data structure associated with the third non-overlapping time period based on the second data structure;
assigning a first document identifier to the first composite data structure, a second document identifier to the second composite data structure, and a third document identifier to the third composite data structure, each of the first, second and third document identifiers indicating the entity;
and
indexing the first, second and third composite data structures within an index,
wherein the first composite data structure comprises a first start date and a first end date defining the first validity period, the second composite data structure comprises a second start date and a second end date defining the second validity period, and the third composite data structure comprises a third start date and a third end date defining the third validity period, and
wherein indexing the first, second and third composite data structures comprises indexing the first start date, the first end date, the second start date, the second end date, the third start date and the third end date.

7 more elements

A non-transitory medium storing processor-executable program code, the program code executable by a device to:

determine a first data structure associated with an entity and a second data structure associated with the entity, the first data structure associated with a first validity period and the second data structure associated with a second validity period, the first validity period different from the second validity period, and the first validity period and the second validity period sharing a common third period;
determine a plurality of non-overlapping time periods based on the first validity period and the second validity period, the plurality of non-overlapping time periods comprising a first non-overlapping time period from a beginning of the first validity period to a beginning of the common third period, a second non-overlapping time period equal to the common third period, and a third non-overlapping time period from an end of the common third period to an end of the second validity period;
determine a first composite data structure associated with the first non-overlapping time period based on the first data structure;
determine a second composite data structure associated with the second non-overlapping time period based on the first data structure and on the second data structure;
determine a third composite data structure associated with the third non-overlapping time period based on the second data structure;
assign a first document identifier to the first composite data structure, a second document identifier to the second composite data structure, and a third document identifier to the third composite data structure, each of the first, second and third document identifiers indicating the entity;
and
index the first, second and third composite data structures within an index,
wherein the first composite data structure comprises a first start date and a first end date defining the first validity period, the second composite data structure comprises a second start date and a second end date defining the second validity period, and the third composite data structure comprises a third start date and a third end date defining the third validity period, and
wherein indexing of the first, second and third composite data structures comprises indexing of the first start date, the first end date, the second start date, the second end date, the third start date and the third end date.

7 more elements

A system comprising:

a computing device comprising:
a memory system storing processor-executable program code;
and
a processor to execute the processor-executable program code in order to cause the computing device to:
determine first data structure associated with an entity and a second data structure associated with the entity, the first data structure associated with a first validity period and the second data structure associated with a second validity period, the first validity period different from the second validity period, and the first validity period and the second validity period sharing a common third period;
determine a plurality of non-overlapping time periods based on the first validity period and the second validity period, the plurality of non-overlapping time periods comprising a first non-overlapping time period from a beginning of the first validity period to a beginning of the common third period, a second non-overlapping time period equal to the common third period, and a third non-overlapping time period from an end of the common third period to an end of the second validity period;
determine a first composite data structure associated with the first non-overlapping time period based on the first data structure;
determine a second composite data structure associated with the second non-overlapping time period based on the first data structure and on the second data structure;
determine a third composite data structure associated with the third non-overlapping time period based on the second data structure;
assign a first document identifier to the first composite data structure, a second document identifier to the second composite data structure, and a third document identifier to the third composite data structure, each of the first, second and third document identifiers indicating the entity;
and
index the first, second and third composite data structures within an index,
wherein the first composite data structure comprises a first start date and a first end date defining the first validity period, the second composite data structure comprises a second start date and a second end date defining the second validity period, and the third composite data structure comprises a third start date and a third end date defining the third validity period, and
wherein indexing of the first, second and third composite data structures comprises indexing of the first start date, the first end date, the second start date, the second end date, the third start date and the third end date.

11 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

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Abstract

A method implemented by a computing system in response to execution of program code by a processor of the computing system, the method comprising:

determining a first data structure associated with an entity and a second data structure associated with the entity, the first data structure associated with a first validity period and the second data structure associated with a second validity period, the first validity period different from the second validity period, and the first validity period and the second validity period sharing a common third period;
determining a plurality of non-overlapping time periods based on the first validity period and the second validity period, the plurality of non-overlapping time periods comprising a first non-overlapping time period from a beginning of the first validity period to a beginning of the common third period, a second non-overlapping time period equal to the common third period, and a third non-overlapping time period from an end of the common third period to an end of the second validity period;
determining a first composite data structure associated with the first non-overlapping time period based on the first data structure;
determining a second composite data structure associated with the second non-overlapping time period based on the first data structure and on the second data structure;
determining a third composite data structure associated with the third non-overlapping time period based on the second data structure;
assigning a first document identifier to the first composite data structure, a second document identifier to the second composite data structure, and a third document identifier to the third composite data structure, each of the first, second and third document identifiers indicating the entity;
and
indexing the first, second and third composite data structures within an index,
wherein the first composite data structure comprises a first start date and a first end date defining the first validity period, the second composite data structure comprises a second start date and a second end date defining the second validity period, and the third composite data structure comprises a third start date and a third end date defining the third validity period, and
wherein indexing the first, second and third composite data structures comprises indexing the first start date, the first end date, the second start date, the second end date, the third start date and the third end date.

7 more elements