System for indexing ontology-based semantic matching operators in a relational database system

摘要

A method for rapidly identifying terms that are associated with a given root term by a transitive relationship defined by hierarchical ontology data stored in a relational database. A transitive closure table is created that comprises a plurality of rows each of which specifies a term and an associated one of a plurality of root terms. The table is sorted and indexed by the root terms to group together rows associated with each of said root terms. The resulting transitive closure table may be consulted to rapidly identify terms associated with said given root term.