Synthesizing Data Programs

1. ABSTRACT At least two important tasks in modern data management exist outside traditional database models and query languages: data transformation and feature programs. Data transformation is the informal preprocessing code that transforms raw data into a dataset that is appropriate for import into a relational database for deeper analysis. Feature programs transform raw data into a compact piece of training data that is suitable for use in a statistical training procedure. These two tasks are driven by two applications that are intellectually exciting, economically important, and which rightfully garner substantial attention in the database community: data analytics and machine learning. Unfortunately, to date, both data transformation and feature programs have largely existed in an ad hoc netherworld of Python programs and shell scripts. Consider a stock trader engaged in an analytics task, who is interested in downloading a text le that describes large executive stock