Patent ID: 8918410

Claim:
A computer-implemented method of determining a role for a data variable for use in data modeling of a physical process, comprising: identifying to a plurality of data nodes a set of data records containing data values assigned to each data node, a maximum number of levels to record in a sorted data structure at the data nodes, and the data node responsible for each of a plurality of variables; receiving for each variable from the data node responsible for the variable a plurality of unique data values for the variable, a count for each of the unique data values and an overflow count for the variable, wherein a number of unique data values does not exceed the maximum number of levels, wherein the data values, counts and overflow count have been generated at a plurality of data nodes by node data processors configured by data processing instructions to: determine whether a next data value for a data record is added to the sorted data structure at the data node and that a count associated with that next data value is added to the sorted data structure when the next data value is added, determine whether the next data value is already included in the sorted data structure and that the count associated with that next data value is incremented when the next data value is already included, and determine whether the next data value should not be added to the data structure and that an overflow count at that node should be incremented when the next data value cannot be added; wherein a role for a variable is determined based upon the unique data values, counts and overflow count for a variable.