Data cells and data cell generations

Abstract

Data cells are described containing an entity identifier (“O”), an entity type (“E”) an attribute type (“A”), and an attribute value (“V”). Cells with identical O and E values constitute a cell set. Pairs of synapse cells relate cell sets, each synapse cell having O and E values of one cell set and A and V values equal to the E and O values of the other cell set. Cell generations store information about attributes, entities, relationships, constraints, and default data formats in the same cell listing as the cells containing the actual real-world data. As a result, the data in a data cell can be considered self-identifying. The present invention also provides a way to normalize data using data pool cell sets. The data cells themselves can be stored in multiple, co-existing storage trees that are specialized for increased data query efficiency.

1 . A computer related article of manufacture comprising:
 a computer readable, non-transitory medium having a data collection comprising   a) a plurality of data cells, each data cell having an instance identifier field, an entity type field, an attribute type field, and an attribute value field;   b) a data pool cell having a particular value for its attribute value;   c) a pooled data cell in the plurality of data cells, the pooled data cell having a link to the data pool cell as its attribute value, wherein the pooled data cell is treated as if the pooled data cell has the particular value as its attribute value.   
     
     
         2 . The article of manufacture of  claim 1 , further comprising a data pool cell set having the data pool cell as a member, wherein the link in the pooled data cell points to the data pool cell set. 
     
     
         3 . A computerized method for pooling data found in data cells, where each data cell has an instance identifier field, an entity type field, an attribute type field, and an attribute value field, the method comprising:
 a) selecting at least two data cells in a computerized cellular database having the same values in their attribute type fields and their attribute value fields;   b) creating a data pool cell having the same value in its attribute value field as the selected data cells; and   c) replacing the attribute value fields in the selected cells with a pointer to the pool cell.   
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 3 , wherein the pointer to the data pool cell contains the instance identifier field and the entity type field of the data pool cell. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 4 , further comprising the step of:
 d) maintaining a count of the number of selected cells pointing to the data pool cell.   
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 5 , further comprising the step of:
 e) creating an addition cell having the count in its attribute value field and further having the same instance identifier field and the entity type field as the data pool cell.   
     
     
         7 . A computer related article of manufacture comprising:
 a computer readable, non-transitory medium having a data collection comprising   a) a plurality of data elements associating attribute values for an attribute type to specific instances of entity types;   b) a data pool element storing a particular value; and   c) a plurality of links linking at least two data elements to the data pool element whenever the attribute value for that data element is the same as the particular value stored by the data pool element, wherein the linked data elements do not contain the attribute value but only the link to the data pool element having the particular value; and   d) a count value associated with each data pool element, the count value being equal to a count of all data elements that are linked to that data pool element.   
     
     
         8 . A computer implemented method for structuring data in a computerized database comprising:
 a) structuring a plurality of data cells in the computerized database, each data cell having an instance identifier field, an entity type field, an attribute type field, and an attribute value field;   b) structuring a data pool cell in the plurality of data cells having a particular value in its attribute value field; and   c) structuring a pooled data cell in the plurality of data cells, the pooled data cell having a link to the data pool cell in its attribute value field, wherein the pooled data cell is treated as if the pooled data cell has the particular value in its attribute value field.   
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 8 , wherein the link to the data pool cell contains the instance identifier field and the entity type field of the data pool cell. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 8 , further comprising a data pool cell set having the data pool cell as a member, the cell set having a plurality of cells containing the same values in their instance identifier field and entity type field, wherein the link in the pooled data cell points to the data pool cell set. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 10 , wherein the link to the data pool cell contains the instance identifier field and the entity type field of the data pool cell set. 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 10 , wherein more than one pooled data cell is structured with a link to the data pool cell set, and wherein one of the data cells in the data pool cell set contains a count of the number of pooled data cells linking to the data pool cell set. 
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 8 , further comprising the step of maintaining a count of the number of cells pointing to the data pool cell. 
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 8 , wherein the data pool cell pools data for a particular attribute type of a particular entity type.