Patent ID: 7333973

Claim:
A data analysis system to analyze data sets, comprising: a database to store data; analysis processing means for determining a correlation among data elements based on a comparison of (i) a number of occurrences, in stored data, of a first data element, and (ii) a number of simultaneous occurrences, in the stored data, of the first data element and a second data element, and to form data elements into groups based on a multitude of predetermined conditions by setting a state of a conditional flag when all of said multitude of predetermined conditions are satisfied, and grouping data elements based on the state of said conditional flag; wherein dependence ratios are calculated for each pair of the data elements based on the number of simultaneous occurrences in the stored data of said pair of the data elements, and all of the data elements that have a dependence ratio with at least one of the other data elements greater than a first threshold are formed into groups by: i) selecting a first of the data elements, ii) putting said first of the data elements into a first group, iii) selecting a second of the data elements, iv) putting said second of the data elements into the first group when the dependence ratio of the first and second data elements exceeds the first threshold, v) selecting a third of the data elements, and vi) putting said third of the data elements into the first group when dependence ratio of the second and third data elements exceeds said first threshold; for the remaining data elements that are not put in the first group: i) selecting one of said remaining data elements and putting the selected one of the remaining data elements into a second group, ii) for each of the other of the remaining data elements, putting said each data element in the second group when the dependence ratio of the selected one data element and said each of the other remaining data elements, is greater than the first threshold, and iii) continuing to form one or more additional groups of the data elements, based on the dependence ratios of the data elements, until all of the data elements that have a dependence ratio with at least one of the other data elements, greater than the first threshold are placed into one of the formed groups; and output means for outputting results provided by the analysis processing means.