Architecture that provides a data profile computation technique which employs key profile computation and data pattern profile computation. Key profile computation in a data table includes both exact keys as well as approximate keys, and is based on key strengths. A key strength of 100% is an exact key, and any other percentage in an approximate key. The key strength is estimated based on the number of table rows that have duplicated attribute values. Only column sets that exceed a threshold value are returned. Pattern profiling identifies a small set of regular expression patterns which best describe the patterns within a given set of attribute values. Pattern profiling includes three phases: a first phases for determining token regular expressions, a second phase for determining candidate regular expressions, and a third phase for identifying the best regular expressions of the candidates that match the attribute values.