Method and apparatus for applying if-then-else rules to data sets in a relational data base and generating from the results of application of

Claims

What is claimed:

1. An apparatus for providing an expert systems toolkit, comprising:

a memory for storing data;

a computer coupled to said memory and having a video display and an input device;

a program in execution by said computer for controlling operations thereof for receiving user input defining one or more analysis rules to be applied to user specified data from said memory, each said analysis rule being a user defined arithmetic and/or logic test to be applied to user specified items of said data and for controlling said computer to receive and store user entered data defining the alphanumeric text of a diagnostic statement associated with each true result of each said analysis rule, each said diagnostic statement comprised of a user defined alphanumeric text string which the user can program to define the significance of the true result, its relevance or any other expression which provides meaning to the user of the true result of the analysis rule, and for controlling said computer to receive user input controlling which of said analysis rules are to be applied to said data, and for applying said analysis rules so designated to the data designated by said user and returning a true or false result for each analysis rule so applied depending upon the state of the data to which each analysis rule was applied, and for each true result returned by an analysis rule, controlling said computer to store in a file in said memory the user programmed text of a diagnostic statement associated with each true result as a diagnostic in a diagnostic database, and for controlling said computer to receive and store in said memory user input defining one or more expert tests, each expert test comprising a user defined arithmetic and/or logic statement to be applied to one or more diagnostics selected by user input from the diagnostics stored in said diagnostic database, said arithmetic and/or logic statement comprised of mathematical operators and/or logical operators from any logic set such as predicate logic or Boolean logic including at least the AND, OR and NOT functions, each said expert test returning either a true or false result, and for controlling said computer to receive user input defining the text of a super diagnostic statement in the form of an alphanumeric string associated with each true result of one of said expert tests, each said superdiagnostic being an alphanumeric string which the user can program to define the significance of the true result of the expert rule, its relevance or any other expression which provides meaning to the user of the true result of the expert rule, and for controlling said computer to receive user input defining which of said expert tests to execute on user specified diagnostics in said diagnostic database, and for controlling the computer to execute the expert tests so designated, and for controlling said computer to store as a super diagnostic in a super diagnostic file in said memory the super diagnostic statement associated with any true result returned by any said expert test.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said program also controls said computer to accept user input entered through said input device which defines bidirectional pointer data which associates each said diagnostic statement defined by user input for an analysis rule with one or more user defined items of data to which said analysis rule is to be applied, and for controlling said computer such that when an analysis rule returns a true result, the corresponding one or more items of user defined data mapped to said true result are stored along with the corresponding bidirectional pointer data.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said diagnostics, the underlying data from which said diagnostics were generated by said analysis rules, and the super diagnostics generated by said expert tests are each stored in a separate table of a relational database, and wherein said program also controls said computer to accept user input entered through said input device which defines bidirectional pointer data which associates each said diagnostic statement defined by user input for an analysis rule with one or more user defined items of data to which said analysis rule is to be applied, and for controlling said computer such that when an analysis rule returns a true result, the corresponding one or more items of user defined data mapped to said true result are stored along with the corresponding bidirectional pointer data, and wherein said program also controls said computer to accept user input entered through said input device which defines bidirectional pointer data which associates each said superdiagnostic statement defined by user input for an expert rule with one or more user defined diagnostics to which said expert rule is to be applied, and for controlling said computer such that when an expert rule returns a true result, the corresponding one or more diagnostics mapped to said true result are stored along with the corresponding bidirectional pointer data.

4. An apparatus for providing an expert systems toolkit implementing diagnostic weighting, comprising:

a memory for storing data;

a computer coupled to said memory and having a video display and an input device;

a program in execution by said computer for controlling operations thereof for receiving user input defining one or more analysis rules to be applied to user specified data from said memory, and for controlling said computer to receive and store user data defining a unique diagnostic statement associated with each true result of each said analysis rule, each said diagnostic statement comprised of a user defined alphanumeric text string, and for controlling said computer to receive user input defining a subjective mathematical statement associated with each said analysis rule, each said subjective mathematical statement being comprised of a user programmable combination of mathematical functions, and each said mathematical statement to be executed only when said associated analysis rule returns a true result, said subjective mathematical statement operating on user specified data from said memory and outputting a numeric result in the form of a weighting number, and for controlling said computer to receive user input controlling which of said analysis rules is to be applied to said data, and for applying said analysis rules so designated to the data in said memory designated by said user and returning a true or false result depending upon the state of the data to which the analysis rule was applied, and for each true result returned by an analysis rule, controlling said computer to store in a file in said memory the diagnostic statement associated with each true result as a diagnostic in a diagnostic database and the corresponding weighting number from the corresponding mathematical statement, and for controlling said computer to receive and store in said memory user input defining one or more expert tests, each expert test comprising a user defined logic statement to be applied to one or more diagnostics selected by user input from the diagnostics stored in said diagnostic database, each said expert test also including an associated user programmable subjective weighting mathematical statement, each said subjective weighting mathematical statement being comprised of a user programmable combination of mathematical functions to be applied to the weighting numbers associated with the diagnostics combined by the logic statement of said expert test, at least one said mathematical function designed to select the maximum of all the weighting numbers associated with diagnostics combined by the corresponding expert test logic statement, and at least one said mathematical function designed to select the minimum of all the weighting numbers associated with the diagnostics combined by the associated expert test logic statement, said logic statement of each said expert test comprised of logical operators from any logic set such as predicate logic or Boolean logic including at least the AND, OR and NOT functions, each said expert test returning either a true or false result, and for controlling said computer to receive user input defining a super diagnostic statement in the form of an alphanumeric string associated with each true result of one of said expert tests, and for controlling said computer to receive user input defining which of said expert tests to execute and for executing the expert tests so designated, and for controlling said computer to store as a super diagnostic in a super diagnostic file in said memory the super diagnostic statement associated with any true result returned by any said expert test in addition to the numeric result of the associated weighting mathematical statement.

5. The apparatus of claim 4 wherein said subjective weighting mathematical statements associated with each said analysis rule and each said expert test are user defined.

6. The apparatus of claim 4 wherein each said mathematical function forming part of any said subjective mathematical statement has a predetermined rule of operation for operating on the weighting numbers associated with the data or diagnostics operated on by said analysis rules or said expert tests, respectively, said rule of operation not being definable by the user.

7. The apparatus of claim 4 wherein said numeric result of each said subjective weighting mathematical statement defines the degree, expressed as a percentage, to which said user believes the diagnostic associated width said true result is or is not included in a subjective class of diagnostics believed by the user to share a similar property or meaning, and wherein the rule of operation for each said mathematical function forming a part of any said mathematical statement associated with any said expert test is predefined, and wherein all logical AND operators forming part of any user defined logic statement of any expert test are assigned the mathematical minima rule of operation which selects the minima of the weighting numbers associated with the diagnostics being combined by the logic statement of the expert test, and wherein all logical OR operators forming part of any user defined logic statement forming part of an expert test is assigned the mathematical maxima rule of operation which selects the maxima of the weighting numbers associated with the diagnostics being combined by the logic statement of the expert test, and wherein all NOT logical operators forming part of any user defined logic statement of any expert test are assigned thereto a 1-x mathematical operator where x is the weighting number of the diagnostic which is negated by the NOT logical operator, such that a logical expression of A AND NOT(B), where A had a weighting number of 40% and B had a weighting number of 70% would result in a weighting number of minima{40%:(1-70%)}=30%.

8. The apparatus of claim 4 wherein said program also controls said computer to accept user input entered through said input device which defines bi-directional pointer data which associates each said diagnostic statement defined by user input for an analysis rule with any user defined data in said memory, and for controlling said computer such that when an analysis rule returns a true result, the corresponding diagnostic mapped to said true result is stored along with the corresponding bi-directional pointer data.

9. The apparatus of claim 4 wherein said diagnostics and the associated weighting numbers, the underlying data from which said diagnostics were generated by said analysis rules, and the super diagnostics generated by said expert tests and the associated weighting numbers derived by said mathematical statement associated with each said expert test are each stored in a separate table of a relational database.

10. The apparatus of claim 9 wherein said program controls said computer to receive user input that defines first and second sets of analysis rules, said first set of analysis rules for acting upon user designated data from a first data file and said second set of analysis rules for acting upon user designated data from a second data file, and for controlling said computer to receive user input data that defines diagnostic statements and mathematical statements relating subjective weighting numbers, each of said diagnostic statements and mathematical statements associated with true results from each said analysis rule in said first and second set of analysis rules, and for controlling said computer to store diagnostics generated by said first set of analysis rules in a first diagnostic database and to store diagnostics generated by said second set of analysis rules in a second diagnostic database, and for controlling said computer such that said logical statements and subjective, user defined mathematical statement associated with each said expert test may be applied to user designated combinations of diagnostics from either or both of said first and second diagnostic databases.

11. The apparatus of claim 9 wherein said program controls said computer to receive user input that defines first and second sets of analysis rules, said first set of analysis rules for acting up on user designated data from a first data file and said second set of analysis rules for acting upon user designated data from a second data file, and for controlling said computer to receive user input data that defines diagnostic statements and mathematical statements relating subjective weighting numbers, each of said diagnostic statements and mathematical statements associated with true results from each said analysis rule in said first and second set of analysis rules, and for controlling said computer to store diagnostics generated by either said first or second set of analysis rules in a single diagnostic database.

12. An apparatus for providing an expert systems toolkit, comprising:

a memory for storing data including at least first and second database files;

a computer coupled to said memory and having a video display and an input device;

a program in execution by said computer for controlling operations thereof for receiving user input defining a first set of one or more analysis rules to be applied to user specified data from said first database file, and for controlling said computer for receiving user input defining a second set of one or more analysis rules to be applied to user specified data from said second database file, each said analysis rule in said first and second set of analysis rules returning either true or false results depending upon the state of the data to which the analysis rule was applied, and for controlling said computer to receive and store user data defining a unique diagnostic statement associated with each true result of each said analysis rule in said first and second set of analysis rules, each said diagnostic statement comprised of a user defined alphanumeric text string which the user can program to define the significance of the true result, its relevance or any other expression which provides meaning to the user of the true result of the analysis rule, and for controlling said computer to receive user input controlling which of said analysis rules in each of said first and second sets of analysis rules are to be applied to said data of said first and second database files and for applying the analysis rules so designated from said first and second sets of analysis rules, and for applying said analysis rules so designated to the data designated by said user and returning a true or false result for each analysis rule so applied, and for each true result returned by an analysis rule in said first set of analysis rules, controlling said computer to store in said memory the diagnostic statement associated with each true result as a diagnostic in a first diagnostic database, and for each true result returned by an analysis rule in said second set of analysis rules, controlling said computer to store in said memory the diagnostic statement associated with each true result as a diagnostic in a second diagnostic database, and for controlling said computer to receive and store in said memory user input defining one or more expert tests, each expert test comprising a user defined logic statement to be applied to one or more diagnostics selected by user input from the diagnostics stored in either or both of said first and second diagnostic databases, said logic statement comprised of logical operators from any logic set such as predicate logic or Boolean logic including at least the AND, OR and NOT functions, each said expert test returning either a true or false result, and for controlling said computer to receive user input defining a superdiagnostic in the form of an alphanumeric string associated with each true result of one of said expert tests each said superdiagnostic being an alphanumeric string which the user can program to define the significance of the true result of the expert rule, its relevance or any other expression which provides meaning to the user of the true result of the expert rule, and for controlling said computer to receive user input defining which of said expert tests to execute and for executing the expert tests so designated, and for controlling said computer to store as a superdiagnostic in a superdiagnostic file in said memory the superdiagnostic statement associated with any true result returned by any said expert test.