Natural language interface to databases

A computer program product comprising:

• a non-transitory computer readable storage medium having stored thereon:
• first program instructions executable by a device to cause the device to receive a natural language query from a user;
• second program instructions executable by the device to cause the device to receive an ontological representation of data in a database, the ontological representation of the data in the database including names of tables in the database, column names in the tables, and row names in the tables;
• third program instructions executable by the device to cause the device to receive template rules used to automatically generate rules for detection of entities and relations in the natural language query, the template rules being language dependent and ontology independent, the template rules including widely used constructs of a language;
• fourth program instructions executable by the device to cause the device to automatically generate rules to identify entities and relations in the natural language query, the automatically generated rules being generated with the ontological representation of the data in the database and the template rules, wherein said fourth program instructions:
• replace a first variable of a template rule with one of the column names, and
• replace a second variable of the template rule with another one of the column names;
• fifth program instructions executable by the device to cause the device to identify entities and relations in the natural language query with the automatically generated rules;
• and
• sixth program instructions executable by the device to cause the device to generate the structured data language query from the entities and relations.

A system for creating a structured data language query, said system comprising:

• an interface, said interface is operable to receive a natural language query from a user;
• an input port, said input port is operable to receive:
• an ontological representation of data in a database, the ontological representation of the data in the database including names of tables in the database, column names in the tables, and row names in the tables, and template rules used to automatically generate rules for detection of entities and relations in the natural language query, said template rules being language dependent and ontology independent, the template rules including widely used constructs of a language;
• a rule generation engine connected to said interface and said input port, said rule generation engine is operable to automatically generate rules, the automatically generated rules being generated with the ontological representation of the data in the database and the template rules to identify entities and relations in the natural language query, wherein said rule generation engine:
• replaces a first variable of a template rule with one of the column names, and
• replaces a second variable of the template rule with another one of the column names;
• a processor connected to said rule generation engine, said processor is operable to identify entities and relations, the entities and relations being identified in the natural language query with the automatically generated rules;
• and
• a query generation engine connected to said processor, said query generation engine is operable to generate the structured data language query from the entities and relations.