JPH04169972A - Data base retrieval processing system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To improve convenience by interruption the retrieval processing according to the user's instruction for retrieval request which takes long retrieval processing and deciding the right or wrong of continuation based on the user's judgement. CONSTITUTION:A user sets the right or wrong of interruption function execution and a parameter for allowable retrieval processing time (T) before calling for the retrieval request to a data base management system 50 by means of a terminal 10. He monitors retrieval processing time during retrieval processing and interrupts the processing in the case the retrieval processing time exceeds the allowable retrieval processing time. After the interruption, the data base management system 50 asks the continuation of the interrupted processing, and decides the continuation or invalidity of the interrupted processing based on the instruction of the user by receiving the right of wrong of the continuation of the interrupted processing from a user. Thus, the convenience can be improved.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a database search processing method in a database management system.

[Conventional technology]

When using a database management system that provides an interface for set operations, such as a recent relational model database management system, - once a search request is issued, the process continues until a group of records satisfying the search results is obtained. Control is not returned. Therefore, the time required for communication between the system and the user is relatively long. It depends on the number of records, the type of search request, and the physical structure of the data.

In many cases, the duration ranges from several tens of minutes to several hours.

If you issue a search request and no results are returned,
The user may want to resubmit with additional search criteria or issue a higher priority search request.
I want to cancel the search process.

In such a case, there is no way to notify the database management system that processing has stopped, so the only option is to forcibly terminate the running program (user program, r database management system), but wait until the search is completed. .

In the case of an information search system such as the patent search system (PATOLIS), indexes are provided for all condition items, and when a search request is received, the related index is first searched based on the conditions in the search request, and the five conditions are searched. Find the number of data items that satisfy the following and notify the user. The user narrows down the number of data items by adding or changing conditions. Once you have narrowed it down to a certain number of items, issue an access request to the actual data and retrieve the necessary data. By narrowing down the data, it is possible to prevent the access time to the actual data from taking a long time.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

In the search processing method of conventional database management systems,
In order to stop the search process, it was necessary to terminate the program. Furthermore, when a program is forcibly terminated, it takes time to restart it.

Therefore, even if the user has to wait a long time for the results of a search request to be returned, the user may end up canceling the search process just before it ends, making it difficult for the user to cancel the search process, resulting in wasted time. There were times when I had a hard time.

In addition, methods that notify the number of data items and narrow down the data as in an information retrieval system are used in general-purpose systems such as database management systems.

Since not all condition items are indexed, it is necessary to access the actual data to obtain the number of data items, and as a result, the same processing time is required.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In view of the above-mentioned problems, an object of the present invention is to provide a database management system that allows a user to interrupt processing that exceeds the permissible search processing time set by the user when issuing a search processing request, and furthermore, allows the user to grasp the progress of the processing. The object of the present invention is to provide a means for instructing whether or not to continue an interrupted process.

[Means to solve the problem]

The above purpose is to provide a database management system that stores data in a database and searches for data that satisfies specified conditions in response to a user's search request. A step in which the user sets the allowable search processing time from the start of the search process until the search process is interrupted, a step in which the search process time is monitored during the search process, and a process to be performed when the search process time exceeds the allowable search process time. a step that interrupts
After an interruption, the user is asked whether or not to continue the interrupted process.
This is achieved by a database search processing method characterized by providing a chip, a step of receiving from the user whether or not to continue the interrupted processing, and a step of continuing or invalidating the interrupted processing according to the user's instructions.

When asking the user whether to continue the interrupted process, the process estimates the processing time until the search ends based on the monitored search processing time, the number of processed data, and the number of unprocessed data,
The estimated unprocessed search time may also be conveyed.

[Effect]

The operation of the above means will be described below.

The user sets the following parameters before issuing a search request to the database management system.

(1) Can the interrupt function be executed? Indicates whether suspend functionality is applied.

(2) Allowable search processing time (T) When the interrupt function is applied, the time from the start of the search until the search processing is interrupted. When this time period is exceeded, the search process is interrupted.

The above parameters can be set for the entire system, or for each user, program, or search request.

When a user issues a search request, the database management system continues processing until the search ends as usual, unless execution of the interrupt function is necessary. When the interruption function is applied, first the number N of all data to be searched is obtained, and then the search process is executed while measuring the processing time of the search request and the number n of processed data items.

When the search processing time reaches T, the database management system estimates the remaining search processing time t. t[
The remainder] is calculated from the following formula.

t [remaining] = (N/n) XT - T = (N - n) XT/n The database management system informs the user who issued the interrupted search request that the search process will be interrupted and that the remaining search processing time will be required. t [remaining] and asks the user whether or not to continue.

The user determines whether to continue or not based on the remaining time t1 required for the search process, and issues an instruction.

The database management system continues the search process if it is a continuation request, and stops the search process if it is a request that cannot be continued.

As described above, in the case of a search request in which the search process takes a long time, it is possible to interrupt the search process according to the user's instruction, and to make it possible for the user to decide whether to continue the search process or not.

〔Example〕

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the system configuration of the present invention. The database management system 50 receives an access request to the database 4o from the terminal interface 20 provided by the database management system 50 or the user program 30 created by the user, and executes the instructed database operation. The terminal interface 2o transfers the user's request input from the terminal 10 to the database management system 5o, and outputs the execution result to the terminal 10. The user program 30 is started by the user from the terminal 10 or the like, passes the user's request written in the program 30 to the database management system 50, and outputs the execution result to the terminal 10, either as is or after processing. Print it on a printer. User program 3o
Some of these are batch-processed and are executed to the end after startup, but others, such as the terminal interface 2o, proceed interactively while obtaining user requests via the terminal 10.

When the database management system 50 receives a user's request, the request control unit 51 analyzes the content, calls the corresponding processing unit, and causes the request control unit 51 to execute the necessary processing. The search processing unit 52 manages search processing for the database 40.

The update processing unit 53 is in charge of updating the database 40.

The definition processing unit 54 is in charge of definition processing for the database 4o.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing the minimum equipment configuration for implementing the present invention. Database management system 50, which is a component of the present invention. The user program 30 and the terminal interface 2o run on the computer 6o. Secondary storage device 7
0 stores data and files used by the database 40 and each program. The terminal 1o is used when a terminal user uses the database management system 50 or starts the user program 30 via the terminal interface 20.

The processing procedure of the present invention will be described below.

Before issuing a search request to the database management system 50, the user sets the following parameters.

(1) Can the interrupt function be executed? Indicates whether suspend functionality is applied.

(2) Allowable search processing time (T) When the interruption function is applied, the time from the start of the search until the search processing is interrupted. When this time period is exceeded, the search process is interrupted.

The above parameters can be set as parameters for the entire system, or can be set for each user, each program, or each search request.

If you want to make it a parameter for the entire system, set or change the above parameter in the system definition.

When setting parameters for each user, set or change the above parameters in the user definition. Parameter settings for each program are given as parameters when preprocessing the program.

Alternatively, it is given as a parameter when calling the connection to the database management system at the beginning of the program. When setting parameters for each search request, provide them as parameters when passing five search requests.

The database management system 50 holds these parameters as control information, and controls the search process based on these control information when executing the search process.

The processing procedure when the database management system 50 receives a search request from a user will be described. The database management system 50 receives a database access request from a user from the user program 30 or the terminal interface 20. All database access requests from users are passed to the request control unit 51. The request control unit 51 distributes processing depending on the content of the request. In the case of a search request, the search processing unit 52 is called, and in the case of an update request, the update processing unit 53. In the case of a database definition request, the definition processing unit 54 is called.

The processing procedure of the search processing section 52 will be shown using the flowchart of FIG. The search processing unit 52 checks whether the interrupt function is specified based on the control information described above (step 100). If there is no designation, the process continues until the search ends as usual (step 101), but if there is a designation for the interruption function.

The search process is executed while monitoring the processing time of the search request (step 102). The elapsed time is checked at regular intervals to see if it has exceeded the allowable search processing time T (step 103).

The determination of a certain period of time may be performed using the timer monitoring function of O8, or may be performed every time one piece of data to be searched is processed. Note that there is also a method of using a timer monitoring function to have the O8 be contacted when the allowable search processing time T has elapsed.

Note that if the search processing is completed within the allowable search processing time T, the search results are returned as before.

When the allowable search processing time T has been exceeded, the search processing unit 52 notifies the user to that effect and inquires whether or not to continue the search processing (step 104).

The search processing unit 52 checks whether the response from the user is an instruction to continue the search (step 105).

If the instruction indicates that the search cannot be continued, the search request is invalidated (step 1o6). If the instruction is to continue the search, the search processing is continued until the search is completed (step 107).

As described above, when the user issues a search request that exceeds the allowable search processing time, the user can interrupt the process and instruct whether or not to continue the process.

As another example, in order to provide the user with information to decide whether to continue the search, a method will be described in which the estimated time required until the end of the search is communicated when the search is interrupted.

In this method, the number N of data to be searched is obtained before executing the search process. When searching for all data in a file in order, the number of data in the file held as database management information is used. In the case of data search using an index, the number of entries of the corresponding key value in the index is set as the number of data items to be searched.

After that, while executing the search process, check whether the conditions are satisfied or not.
The number of data that has been processed, regardless of whether it has been processed or not.
In the case of an index, the number of processed entries is counted as the processed data number n.

When the search processing time reaches T, the search processing unit 52 calculates the remaining search processing time t [remaining time] based on the following formula.

t[Remain=:(N-n)XT/n Then, in step 104, a value calculated as the estimated time required to complete the search is returned together with a notification that the allowable search processing time has been exceeded.

As described above, the user can predict how much time will be required, making it easier to judge whether or not to continue the process.

As described above, in the case of a search request that requires a long search process, it becomes possible to interrupt the search process based on the user's instruction, and to decide whether or not to continue the search process based on the user's judgment.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As explained above, according to this method, when the search process is a long-term search request, the search process can be interrupted according to the user's instructions, and the user can decide whether to continue or not, which improves usability. Provides a good user interface.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a flowchart for explaining the flow of processing in an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the overall configuration of an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 3 is a diagram showing the minimum equipment configuration for implementing the present invention. In Figure 2, 10...terminal used by the terminal user, 20
...Interface program for terminal users, 30
...User program, 40...Database, 5
0...Database management system, 51, 52゜53
．． 54: A request control unit, a search processing unit, an update processing unit, and a definition processing unit that constitute the database management system 50. In FIG. 3, 60 indicates a computer, and 70 indicates a secondary storage device. Figure 1

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. In a database management system that stores data in a database and searches for data that satisfies specified conditions in response to a user's search request, the database management system is provided with a method for executing a search process. Before starting, there is a step in which the user sets the allowable search processing time from the start of the search process until the search process is interrupted, a step in which the search process time is monitored during the search process, and a step in which the search process time exceeds the allowable search process time. a step to suspend processing if
a step of asking the user whether or not to continue the interrupted process;
A database search processing method comprising: a step of receiving from a user whether or not to continue the interrupted process; and a step of continuing or invalidating the interrupted process based on the user's instructions. 2. When asking the user whether to continue the interrupted process, estimate the processing time until the search ends based on the monitored search processing time, the number of processed data, and the number of unprocessed data, and estimate the amount of unprocessed data. A database search processing method according to claim 1, characterized in that a search time is also transmitted.