JPH0486950A - Document retrieving method - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To return to a retrieval condition on a previous stage at any time so as to execute retrieval again when it is judged that the finally inputted retrieval condition is not suitable by preserving retrieval information concerning stepwise retrieving operations as history information in a history information part. CONSTITUTION:A user inputs a keyword by a keyword input part 3. A retrieval part 5 prepares a retrieval keyword list so as to retrieve a document by using the inputted keyword and a keyword connection table. A display part 6 selectively displays the retrieved result. Simultaneously, the retrieval keyword (formula) and these information are preserved in a history information management part 7. The user inputs the next keyword and constructs the retrieval keyword formula. All the keyword formulas corresponding to retrieved results are preserved in the management part 7. A history operation part 8 is equipped with a function to return to the desired retrieval stage by retroacting to this history information. When the user judges that the finally inputted retrieval condition formula is not suitable, it is possible to return to the retrieval condition formula on the previous stage and to execute retrieval again, and efficient retrieval is enabled.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a document retrieval method in which a desired document is retrieved from a large amount of documents by inputting search conditions including a plurality of keywords.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Conventionally, document search devices have various search methods, one of which is to search for related keywords using a keyword connection table that describes related information between each keyword, and search all registered documents from these keywords. The applicant has proposed, for example, a method that calculates the document accuracy (evaluation value with a larger value for documents closer to the user's search request), sorts them in descending order of document accuracy, and outputs them as search results. No. 63-8291 "Document search device"
It has been proposed by et al. In such a document search device, even if the user does not remember exact keywords, by performing a vague search using a keyword connection table, an appropriate amount of search results can be obtained.

In such a search device, a user can use a keyword expression in which multiple keywords are combined with a logical operator such as AND, OR, or NOT as a search condition expression for searching for an appropriate document. . However, even if a keyword seems appropriate to a user, that keyword is not always registered, and it is not so easy for a user to think of a truly appropriate keyword formula. There is a lot of waste and time required to search for the desired document.

Therefore, as shown in Japanese Patent Application No. 2-97398, a step-by-step search is performed for each keyword input, and the user can view the search results as shown below. A summary of candidate documents ■ Keywords included in each candidate document ■ Statistical information on keywords appearing in search result documents has been proposed that can be viewed as any of the information formats.

The user inputs the next search keyword while referring to the displayed content. Here, ■■ above is a display function that is also provided in conventional search systems, but ■■ is a new display function that has already been proposed. First, ■ is displayed in association with ■, and keywords included in the document are displayed together with the candidate document name. If there is a suitable keyword for your next search among the displayed keywords, enter it using the keyboard, or
Alternatively, you can select and input the keywords displayed on the display by clicking on them with a mouse or the like.

At this time, logical operators such as AND, OR, and NOT are used to describe the relationship with the initial search keyword and construct a keyword expression. On the other hand, ■ displays the keywords that appear in the search result documents in order of frequency of appearance.
If there is a suitable keyword for the next search, it can be entered using the keyboard or mouse as in the case above.

By performing such a step-by-step search, it is possible to construct a search keyword formula relatively easily.

Further, one of the advantages of such a method is that when performing a search step by step, the search operation can be made easier by specifying the previous search results as the search population.

Problem to be Solved by the Invention However, even with such a step-by-step search method, for example, A. Up to a certain stage, a search could be performed using an appropriate keyword expression, but a new keyword could be added and a new search performed. As a result, the search keyword expression was not appropriate (
(Failure to construct search keyword expression).

B. I would like to perform a search operation using almost the same keyword formula as the search keyword formula used in the past, with only some differences.

In such a case, you will have to start searching all documents again. Generally, searching is a very expensive operation, and in such cases, search efficiency is significantly reduced. In particular, in case B, the user may not be aware that they are searching using almost the same keyword formula, so there is a high possibility that valuable resources will be wasted.

Means for Solving the Problem A document search device that allows a user to input search conditions including a search keyword, and uses a search unit to search for a desired document that satisfies the search conditions from among a plurality of documents stored in a file. performs a step-by-step search operation each time a search keyword is input, displays the keyword information contained in candidate documents obtained from the search results to the user, and also records this step-by-step search information in the history. It is now saved as information in the history information management department.

Furthermore, the input search keyword expression is compared with the keyword expression in the past history information stored in the history information management section, and if there is a complete match with the past keyword expression, the corresponding search result is sent to the history information management section. When there is a partial match with a past keyword expression, an additional search is performed on the corresponding past search results stored in the history information management section.

Since search information about step-by-step search operations is stored as history information, flexible search operations are possible. If it is determined that the search conditions are not appropriate, you can always return to the previous search conditions and start the search again, making it possible to perform a more efficient search.

In particular, according to the invention as claimed in claim 2, by using the past search information, even when the search keyword expression completely matches the keyword expression in the past history information, even in the case of a partial match. For example, when performing multiple searches using slightly different keyword expressions, there is no need to restart the search from the beginning, and the search can be performed by going back to the appropriate stage in the saved history information, reducing the burden of search operations. It can be significantly reduced. That is, by using the past history of the input keyword expression, it is possible to automatically search at the minimum cost.

Example An embodiment of the present invention will be described based on the drawings.

First, a keyword input section 3 to which an input device such as a keyboard 1 and a pointing device such as a mouse 2 are connected is provided. This keyword input section 3 contains a search condition expression including the input search keyword.
Search to search for a desired document from a large number of documents in file 4 using a keyword connection table (not shown) and an inverted file (a collection of pointers from keywords to documents, not particularly shown) Section 5 is connected. In addition, document information searched by the search unit 5,
A display section 6 for displaying input information from the keyword input section 3 is provided. Further, in this embodiment, a history information management unit 7 that stores and manages search information such as step-by-step search results and corresponding search keyword formulas as history information, and a step-by-step History operation unit 8 for retrieving search results and corresponding search keyword expressions
and is provided. Further, a keyword comparison section 9 is provided which compares the keyword expression inputted from the keyword input section 3 and the keyword expression stored in the history information management section 7.

In such a configuration, first, the previously proposed stepwise search method that is the premise will be explained. First, the user inputs the first search keyword through the keyword input section 3. The search unit 5 uses these keywords and the keyword connection table to create a search keyword list, and searches for documents using this list.

The display unit 6 selectively displays the search results in any of the information formats ① to ② described above. The user refers to these displayed contents and inputs the next search keyword as described above.

This will be explained using a specific example. For example, when a user searches for documents related to UNIX, the first search keyword is u.
Assume that OS n is input. In this case, there should be documents related to O8 other than UNIX (for example, MS-1) O3 at the top of the search results, and this can be easily known from the information displayed in ■. Therefore, the user searches for "AND NOT MS-DO" as the next search keyword.
3" (this can be done by using the mouse 2 to select "AND", "NOT", "M S
-D
This means that the keyword expression -DO8''' has been input.

The next search target can be selected from two options: ``documents from previous search results'' and ``all documents,'' and if the user determines that the former is sufficient, the user can search at high speed. Also,
Using the display information in ■, if unnecessary keywords appear frequently, exclude them with 'N○T I+,
If the required keyword appears infrequently, it can be easily specified.

In this way, according to the existing proposal, the search process is displayed interactively each time the user inputs a keyword formula little by little, so it is easy to construct an appropriate keyword formula, and it can be used even from a large number of registered documents. Users can efficiently narrow down the documents they desire.

Therefore, this embodiment in which step-by-step search information is stored as history information is particularly effective when the target is "documents of previous search results."

First, the user inputs a keyword using the keyword input section 3. There are two ways to input the first keyword: direct input using the keyboard 1, and input that causes the display section 6 to output a list of keywords and selects from this list using the mouse 2. In any case, the search unit 5 uses the input keywords and the keyword connection table to create a search keyword list as described above, and searches for documents using this list. The display unit 6 displays the search results as described above.
Selectively display in four information formats. At the same time, the search keyword (formula) and this information are stored in the history information management section 7. The user refers to the information created on the display unit 6, inputs the next keyword, and constructs a search keyword formula. All the keyword expressions corresponding to the search results obtained in this way are stored in the history information management section 7. The history operation unit 8 has a function of returning to a desired search stage by tracing this history information. Therefore, for example, if a user looks at the search results obtained step by step and decides that the last search condition entered is not appropriate, he or she can always go back to the previous search condition and start the search again. This allows for efficient searches.

Here, if the search target is in the mode of the previous search result,
A keyword comparison section 9 compares whether the keyword expression inputted by the keyword input section 3 definitely matches the keyword expression in the history information stored in the history information management section 7. If a search using exactly the same keyword formula (exact match) has been performed in the past, the corresponding search result information is retrieved from the history information management section 7 and displayed on the display section 6. On the other hand, even if it does not match completely, it searches for the longest partial expression of the input keyword (partial match) and performs an additional search for the difference between the expressions. let In this way, it is possible to automatically search for the input keyword expression using the past history at the minimum cost. For example, if the input keyword expression is a
& b & c & d, and in the past a & b
If a search is performed using the keyword expressions ``and a&b&c,'' then the search can be performed by adding the condition d to the latter search result.

Effects of the Invention As described above, the present invention stores search information regarding step-by-step search operations as history information in the history information section, making it possible to perform flexible search operations. If you look at the search results and decide that the last search conditions manually entered are not appropriate, you can always go back to the previous search conditions and start the search again.
Efficient searching becomes possible, and in particular, according to the invention described in claim 2, not only when the search keyword expression completely matches the keyword expression in the past history information, but also when the search keyword expression in the past history information is a partial match. For example, if you perform multiple searches using slightly different keyword expressions, there is no need to start the search from the beginning, and you can go back and search to the appropriate stage in the saved history information. The search operation load can be greatly reduced, and by using the past history of input keyword expressions, the search can be performed automatically at the minimum cost.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

The drawing is a block diagram showing one embodiment of the present invention.
File, 5... Search section, 6... Display section, 7... History information management section, 9... Comparison department, Inc.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A document search in which a user inputs search conditions including a search keyword, and a search unit searches for a desired document that satisfies the search conditions from among a plurality of documents stored in a file. The device performs a step-by-step search operation each time a search keyword is input, displays keyword information included in candidate documents obtained from the search results to the user, and displays this step-by-step search information. A document retrieval method characterized in that history information is stored in a history information management section. 2. Compare the input search keyword formula with the keyword formula in past history information stored in the history information management section,
When there is a complete match with a past keyword expression, the corresponding search result is retrieved from the history information management section and displayed, and when there is a partial match with a past keyword expression, addition is made to the corresponding past search result stored in the history information management section. 2. The document retrieval method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of causing the retrieval to be performed.