Patent ID: 7401076

Claim:
A method in a data processing system for processing transformational queries on numerical data, the method comprising: receiving a request for numerical data having units of a unit type; searching a database for at least one set of numerical data having tags indicating unit types associated with the request for numerical data, wherein the database is updated by using a frequency parameter and an expiration parameter, and both the frequency parameter and the expiration parameter are used to determine when and for how long to poll the numerical data to retrieve data for updating the database; locating at least one set of numerical data having tags indicating the unit types associated with the request for numerical data; transforming units of the at least one located set of numerical data for comparison with the request for numerical data; comparing the transformed set of numerical data to the request for numerical data to determine if it matches the received request; and returning the at least one located set of numerical data based on a result of the comparison.