Patent ID: 8799299

Claim:
A computer-based method of transforming an input set of input data columns from an input source into an output set of output data columns, the method comprising: a) receiving a schema contract comprising one or more constraints corresponding to the input set, the schema contract including a specification of a prototype column, wherein the prototype column is specified by a placeholder representing a variable number of output data columns, and is configured to add at least one new column set to the output set of output data columns; b) receiving metadata descriptive of the set of input data columns, the metadata including type definitions corresponding to each input data column; c) receiving dataflow configuration data representing one or more dataflows of the input set; d) executing, using a processor, each dataflow specified by the dataflow configuration data; and e) prior to receiving data of each dataflow, generating a set of column types, each column type corresponding to a respective input data column associated with the dataflow, based on the metadata and the one or more constraints.