Method and apparatus for dynamically representing aggregated and segmented data views using view element sets

摘要

Apparatus and method for generating a view element representation of multiple-attribute tabular data are provided, including converting tabular data into a multidimensional lattice form whereby each functional attribute of the relational data is mapped to a dimension in the lattice, and each cell in the lattice corresponds to an aggregation over records in the data table. The mechanism further provides for generating a view element representation of multidimensional lattice data comprising decomposing the multidimensional data into view elements such that the view elements retain sufficient information to reconstruct the original lattice data. Alternatively, the mechanism for generating a view element data representation including iterative decomposition of the lattice data into aggregated and residual view elements or by spatially partitioning the lattice data. Further taught are an apparatus and a method for generating a view element data representation including the decomposition of the lattice data by iteratively and jointly aggregating and spatially partitioning the lattice data. Under the system for representing the data using view element sets, costs and benefits are assigned to the view elements and the view element sets are formed on the bases of the costs and benefits. A view of the data from a set of view elements is synthesized by selecting view elements from the view element sets and assembling the view elements together to construct the views.