MERGING OBJECTS IN A FACTS DATABASE

A key attribute may be selected for a set of objects in a fact repository. A candidate attribute is identified and objects having an attribute-value pair with the candidate attribute are gathered. The candidate attribute is selected as a key attribute if the names of the gathered objects and the values of the objects for the candidate attribute satisfy predefined criteria. For instance, objects may be merged into one object if they have same or similar names and have the same value for a key attribute.