Dynamic graph system for a semantic database

A computer-readable storage medium that is not a transitory, propagating signal storing computer-executable instructions for controlling a computing system to provide a matrix interface to a data store of entries, each entry having a first field, a second field, and a third field, the computer-executable instructions comprising:

• a component that receives a request to retrieve an element from a matrix for a source row and a source column, each entry of the data store representing an element of the matrix that does not have a distinguished value, the first field representing a row of the matrix, the second field representing a column of the matrix, and the third field representing a value for the element of the matrix at the represented row and column;
• a component that identifies, from a first index, entries of the data store that have a value for the first field that matches the source row, the first index mapping values of the first field to entries of the data store that contain those values for the first field;
• and
• a component that
• when an identified entry has a value for the second field that matches the source column, supplies the value of the third field of that entry as the value of the element of the matrix for the source row and the source column;
• and
• when no identified entry has a value for the second field that matches the source column, supplies the distinguished value as the value of the element of the matrix for the source row and the source column
• wherein each row of the matrix and each column of the matrix may be viewed as representing a node of a graph and the value of the element at a row and a column of the matrix may be viewed as representing a link between nodes.

A computer system for providing a matrix interface to a collection of data represented as triples, comprising:

• a computer-readable storage medium storing:
• a data store with entries for each triple, each entry having a first field, a second field, and a third field and representing an element of the matrix that that does not have a distinguished value, the first field representing a first dimension of the matrix, the second field representing a second dimension of the matrix, and the third field representing a value for the element of the matrix at the represented first dimension and second dimension wherein the first dimension of the matrix and the second dimension of the matrix may be considered to represent a node of a graph and the value of the element at the a first dimension and a second dimension of the matrix may be considered to represent a link between nodes;
• an index for the first field of the data store, the index mapping values of the first field to entries of the data store that contain those values for the first field;
• computer-executable instructions that
• receive a request to retrieve an element from a matrix for a source first dimension and a source second dimension;
• identify, from the index, entries of the data store that have a value for the first field that matches the source first dimension;
• upon determining that an identified entry has a value for the second field that matches the source second dimension, provide the value of the third field of that entry as the value of the element of the matrix for the source first dimension and the source second dimension;
• and
• upon determining that no identified entry has a value for the second field that matches the source second dimension, provide the distinguished value as the value of the element of the matrix for the source first dimension and the source second dimension;
• and
• a processor that executes the computer-executable instructions stored in the computer-readable storage medium.