Patent ID: 8862458
Filing Date: 2014-10-14
Classification: G06F

Abstract:
1. A computer implemented method performed by one or more processors for providing a natural language interface for searching a database, the method comprising the following steps: receiving a natural language query; identifying one or more tokens contained in the natural language query; generating a set of sentences based on the identified tokens, each sentence representing a possible logical interpretation of the natural language query and including a combination of at least one of the identified tokens; selecting at least one sentence in the set of sentences for searching the database based on an interpretation ranking comprising a sentence ranking and a token ranking, each of the sentence ranking, the token ranking, and the interpretation ranking based at least in part on the identified tokens, where: building a database-compatible query to search the database based on the at least one sentence, the database comprising a relational database that comprises a plurality of columns; and executing the query against the database by mapping the sentence to at least one of the plurality of columns.