Patent ID: 8635252

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for mapping eXtensible Business Reporting Language (“XBRL”) data to a flat table, the method comprising: obtaining, by the computer, an XBRL linkbase describing relationships among a plurality of XBRL concepts; identifying, by the computer, an XBRL hypercube to which at least some of said plurality of XBRL concepts are attached as XBRL measures; identifying, by the computer, a ubiquitous dimension-like XBRL element associated with said XBRL hypercube and a set of one or more non-ubiquitous dimension-like XBRL elements defined in said XBRL hypercube, said ubiquitous dimension-like XBRL element being ubiquitous among XBRL-structured data; initializing, by the computer, a tabular data structure including a value column for storing facts, a concept column for storing fact-associated concepts, a ubiquitous-dimension column, and one or more non-ubiquitous-dimension columns; generating, by the computer, a data map mapping said XBRL measures of said XBRL hypercube to said concept column, mapping said ubiquitous dimension-like XBRL element of said XBRL hypercube to said ubiquitous-dimension column, and respectively mapping said set of one or more non-ubiquitous dimension-like XBRL elements of said XBRL hypercube to said one or more non-ubiquitous-dimension columns; storing said data map and said tabular data structure; obtaining XBRL instance data comprising a plurality of facts and associated metadata; using said data map, selecting from said XBRL instance data a plurality of hypercube-attached facts that are respectively associated with any one of said plurality of XBRL measures and that are explicitly or implicitly associated with exactly said set of one or more non-ubiquitous dimension-like XBRL elements; using said data map, populating said tabular data structure with a plurality of rows corresponding respectively to said plurality of hypercube-attached facts; and providing said populated tabular data structure for display to a user.