Patent ID: 8560508

Claim:
A method for real-time column compression of data by a processor device in a computing environment, the method comprising: (a) estimating a data structure of initially unknown structured data to generate an estimated data structure with a row width and a column width, wherein the estimated data structure includes one or more rows, wherein each row includes two or more columns; (b) placing the estimated data structure in at least one stream; (c) applying at least one of a plurality of columnar compression operations to the at least one stream to generate an achieved compression ratio and to determine an actual data structure of the initially unknown structured data, wherein the actual data structure is a table having an actual row width and actual column width; (d) analyzing feedback of the achieved compression ratio from the at least one stream to determine whether an optimal columnar compression operation has been applied and to determine whether an optimal compression ratio is generated, wherein the optimal columnar compression operation is one of the at least one of a plurality of columnar compression operations applied to the at least one stream, and wherein the optimal compression ratio is generated based on a highest compression ratio; (e) in response to determining that the optimal columnar compression operation has not been applied and the optimal compression ratio is not generated, repeating steps (c) and (d) until the optimal columnar compression operation has been applied and the optimal compression ratio is generated by using feedback of the achieved compression ratio to select another at least one of the plurality of columnar compression operations to apply to the at least one stream to generate a different compression ratio, and analyzing feedback of the different compression ratio; and (f) in response to determining that the optimal columnar compression operation has been applied and the optimal compression ratio is generated, determining the actual data structure of the initially unknown structured data based on the actual row width and the actual column width corresponding to the applied optimal columnar compression operation and forming the table having the actual row width and the actual column width.