Rule-Based Classification

Rule-based classification is the basic solution for creating an Oracle Text classification application.

The basic steps for rule-based classification are as follows. Specific steps are explored in greater detail in the example.

  1. Create a table for the documents to be classified, and then populate it.

  2. Create a rule table (also known as a category table). The rule table consists of categories that you name, such as “medicine” or “finance,” and the rules that sort documents into those categories.

    These rules are actually queries. For example, you define the “medicine” category as documents that include the words “hospital,” “doctor,” or “disease.” Therefore, you would set up a rule in the form of “hospital OR doctor OR disease.”

  3. Create a CTXRULE index on the rule table.

  4. Classify the documents.

See Also: “CTXRULE Parameters and Limitations” for information on which operators are allowed for queries

Rule-Based Classification Example

In this example, you gather news articles about different subjects and then classify them. After you create the rules, you can index them and then use the MATCHES statement to classify documents.

To classify documents:

  1. Create the schema to store the data.

    The news_table stores the documents to be classified. The news_categories table stores the categories and rules that define the categories. The news_id_cat table stores the document IDs and their associated categories after classification.

    create table news_table (
       tk number primary key not null,
       title varchar2(1000),
       text clob);

create table news_categories (
        queryid  number primary key not null,
        category varchar2(100),
        query    varchar2(2000));

create table news_id_cat (
        tk number,
        category_id number);

  2. Load the documents with SQLLDR.

    Use the SQLLDR program to load the HTML news articles into the news_table. The file names and titles are read from loader.dat.

    LOAD DATA
     INFILE 'loader.dat'
     INTO TABLE news_table
     REPLACE
     FIELDS TERMINATED BY ';'
     (tk         INTEGER EXTERNAL,
      title      CHAR,
      text_file  FILLER CHAR,
      text       LOBFILE(text_file) TERMINATED BY EOF)

  3. Create the categories and write the rules for each category.

    The defined categories are Asia, Europe, Africa, Middle East, Latin America, United States, Conflicts, Finance, Technology, Consumer Electronics, World Politics, U.S. Politics, Astronomy, Paleontology, Health, Natural Disasters, Law, and Music News.

    A rule is a query that selects documents for the category. For example, the ‘Asia’ category has a rule of ‘China or Pakistan or India or Japan’. Insert the rules in the news_categories table.

    insert into news_categories values
  (1,'United States','Washington or George Bush or Colin Powell');

insert into news_categories values
  (2,'Europe','England or Britain or Germany');

insert into news_categories values
  (3,'Middle East','Israel or Iran or Palestine');

insert into news_categories values(4,'Asia','China or Pakistan or India or Japan');

insert into news_categories values(5,'Africa','Egypt or Kenya or Nigeria');

insert into news_categories values
  (6,'Conflicts','war or soldiers or military or troops');

insert into news_categories values(7,'Finance','profit or loss or wall street');
insert into news_categories values
  (8,'Technology','software or computer or Oracle
   or Intel or IBM or Microsoft');

insert into news_categories values
  (9,'Consumer electronics','HDTV or electronics');

insert into news_categories values
  (10,'Latin America','Venezuela or Colombia
   or Argentina or Brazil or Chile');

insert into news_categories values
  (11,'World Politics','Hugo Chavez or George Bush
   or Tony Blair or Saddam Hussein or United Nations');

insert into news_categories values
  (12,'US Politics','George Bush or Democrats or Republicans
   or civil rights or Senate');

insert into news_categories values
  (13,'Astronomy','Jupiter or Earth or star or planet or Orion
   or Venus or Mercury or Mars or Milky Way
   or Telescope or astronomer
   or NASA or astronaut');

insert into news_categories values
  (14,'Paleontology','fossils or scientist
   or paleontologist or dinosaur or Nature');

insert into news_categories values
  (15,'Health','stem cells or embryo or health or medical
   or medicine or World Health Organization
   or virus or centers for disease control or vaccination');

insert into news_categories values
  (16,'Natural Disasters','earthquake or hurricane or tornado');

insert into news_categories values
  (17,'Law','Supreme Court or legislation');

insert into news_categories values
  (18,'Music News','piracy or anti-piracy
   or Recording Industry Association of America
   or copyright or copy-protection or CDs
   or music or artist or song');

commit;

  4. Create the CTXRULE index on the news_categories query column.

create index news_cat_idx on news_categories(query)
indextype is ctxsys.ctxrule;

  1. To classify the documents, use the CLASSIFIER.THIS PL/SQL procedure (a simple procedure designed for this example).

    The procedure scrolls through the news_table, matches each document to a category, and writes the categorized results into the news_id_cat table.

    create or replace package classifier as procedure this;end;/

show errors

create or replace package body classifier as

 procedure this
 is
  v_document    clob;
  v_item        number;
  v_doc         number;
 begin

  for doc in (select tk, text from news_table)
     loop
        v_document := doc.text;
        v_item := 0;
        v_doc  := doc.tk;
        for c in (select queryid, category from news_categories
             where matches(query, v_document) > 0 )
          loop
            v_item := v_item + 1;
            insert into news_id_cat values (doc.tk,c.queryid);
          end loop;
   end loop;

 end this;

end;
/
show errors
exec classifier.this

CTXRULE Parameters and Limitations

The following considerations apply to indexing a CTXRULE index:

See Also: