Answer Server 25.4
Answer Server Help

# SQL Fact Store Example

The following section describes an example of setting up a SQL backend Fact Bank.

A company wants to make its exports data available for question answering. It exports two products, Psi and Omega, to two countries, Germany and France.

In 2015, Psi cost €5 and Omega cost €20. The company exported:

- 50 units of Psi and 20 units of Omega to Germany.
- 10 units of Psi and 30 units of Omega to France.

In 2016, Psi cost €7 and Omega cost €18. Sales increased, and the company exported:

- 80 units of Psi and 100 units of Omega to Germany.
- 40 units of Psi and 50 units of Omega to France.

The following tables show the Fact Bank Facts and Qualifiers table for this information.

Facts Table
entity_code | property_code | property_value | qualifier_combination
--- | --- | --- | ---
`QPSI` | `REXPORTS` | 50 | 0
`QPSI` | `REXPORTS` | 10 | 1
`QPSI` | `REXPORTS` | 80 | 2
`QPSI` | `REXPORTS` | 40 | 3
`QOMEGA` | `REXPORTS` | 20 | 0
`QOMEGA` | `REXPORTS` | 10 | 1
`QOMEGA` | `REXPORTS` | 80 | 2
`QOMEGA` | `REXPORTS` | 40 | 3
`QPSI` | `RPRICE` | 5 | 4
`QOMEGA` | `RPRICE` | 20 | 4
`QPSI` | `RPRICE` | 7 | 5
`QOMEGA` | `RPRICE` | 18 | 5

Qualifiers Table
qualifier_combination | qualifier_code | qualifier_value
--- | --- | ---
0 | `S.COUNTRY` | Germany
0 | `S.YEAR` | 2015
1 | `S.COUNTRY` | France
1 | `S.YEAR` | 2015
2 | `S.COUNTRY` | Germany
2 | `S.YEAR` | 2016
3 | `S.COUNTRY` | France
3 | `S.YEAR` | 2016
4 | `S.YEAR` | 2015
5 | `S.YEAR` | 2016

The following example shows the entity code values in the `code_to_entity.txt` file:

    QPSI=Psi
    QOMEGA=Omega

The following example shows the property code values in the `code_to_property.txt` file:

    S.YEAR=Year,string
    S.COUNTRY=Country,string
    RPRICE=Price,string
    REXPORTS=Exports,string

You can use this Fact Bank setup to answer questions such as:

- What were the 2015 exports of Psi?
- How many Omega were exported to Germany?
- What is the average price of Omega?

Your Answer Server installation includes example files that allow you to test this setup. The example files are included in the `sql_example` directory.

To use this example, you must have a PostgreSQL instance (running on `PostgresHost` and `PostgresPort`, with a user who has access to a `factbank_example` database.

To set up the example

1. Restore the database from the factback_example.pgdump file into your PostgreSQL instance, by using a command of the following form:

       psql -h PostgresHost -p PostgresPort -U UserName factbank_example < factbank_example.pgdump

2. In your Answer Server configuration file, configure a Fact Bank system to use the plain text coding files provided in the example, by setting the CodingsPath parameter to point to the example coding files. For example:

       [MyExampleFactBank]
       Type=factbank
       CodingsPath=C:\AnswerServer\sql_example
       ...

3. In the Fact Bank system configuration, set the ConnectionString to the appropriate connection string for your example database.
4. In the Fact Bank system configuration, set the EductionQuestionGrammars parameters to the location of your `FactBankEductionGrammar.ecr`, which is distributed with Answer Server.
5. Save and close the configuration file.
6. Start all the Answer Server components.

You can now use the Ask action to ask the questions listed above and to check the responses.

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Version 25.4 | Last updated October 2025

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Product: Knowledge Discovery Answer Server 25.4

Topic Title: SQL Fact Store Example