Patent · US Active

Altering data type of a column in a database

US10747737B2 · kind B2 · utility

0Cited by

0References

12Claims

0Family size

Assignee

SAP SE · DE

Inventors

Colin Florendo · Marlborough, US
Ivan Schreter · Malsch, DE
Panfeng Zhou · Dublin, US
David Wein · Windom, US
Steffen Geissinger · Wiesloch, DE
Michael Muehle · Walldorf, DE

Key dates

Filing date	Nov 25, 2014
Grant date	Aug 18, 2020
Priority date	—
Expiry date	Aug 30, 2037

Classification

Technology area (CPC G)Physics
CPC primaryG06F16/221
WIPO fieldComputer technology
WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

Disclosed herein are system, method, and computer program product embodiments for altering the data type of a column in a database. An embodiment operates by converting an original dictionary associated with a column into a new dictionary. The new dictionary stores the values of the original dictionary using a different data type. An index vector containing the keys of the original dictionary is then updated to contain the associated keys of the new dictionary. Because the size of the original dictionary is often substantially smaller than the number of rows in the associated column, this dictionary conversion decreases the computation cost to the database system of altering the data type of the column and reduces or even minimizes database downtime for users.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.