JPH09114862A - Data comparator and method used for it - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To simply compare data in kinds of data element set without making a special expression for logical operation by specifying a data element set within a storage part so as to compare data corresponding to the kind of each set. SOLUTION: A data storage part 1 stores kinds of data files. A selection part 4 specifies the one or plural data files stored in the data storage part 1 and selects not less than two data element set as comparing objects. A set identifying part 2 discriminates the kinds of the data element sets. A comparing result storage part 6 stores a comparing result by a comparing part 5, and a display part 3 displays corresponding to this stored content. When a data element set consisting of not less than one data file is specified in this constitution, the kind of the specified data element set is discriminated and corresponding to this discriminating result, data parts forming the data element are successively fetched and compared.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a data comparison device and method for comparing data, and more particularly to data comparison in various data files regardless of the type of data file.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, many database management systems have been proposed and realized for managing data. These have made it possible to efficiently store and retrieve large amounts of data. For example, a relational database describes data in the form of predesigned tables,
By performing a logical operation on the table, desired data can be taken out. However, in order to use the database management system, it was necessary to properly design the data format, and it was necessary to create and give an arithmetic expression in order to compare the data. On the other hand, Tokikaihei 4-18
As disclosed in Japanese Patent Application No. 671 and Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 4-355882, it has been proposed to specify a vertical expansion row, a horizontal expansion row, and a comparison designation row to facilitate generation and maintenance of a comparison table. In addition, even on workstations such as unix (trademark) and msdos (trademark) and file systems of personal computers, users can manage many files by putting files in directories and treating them as a group. It has become so.

However, in the database management system including Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 4-18671 and Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 4-355882, it is necessary to properly define the data structure at the time of managing the data, and the maintenance is troublesome. It takes. Furthermore, when comparing them, it was necessary to create an equation for logical operation based on their structure. JP-A-4-18671 and JP-A-4-3558
The system proposed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 82 can easily generate a comparison table, but there is a problem that it cannot be handled because it is represented in the same database management system.

On the other hand, it is easy to hold various miscellaneous data in a directory of a file system without defining a proper data structure, but the diff command for comparing those directories can compare sub-data. Limited to the directory name of the directory. When comparing with other attributes such as date and size, comparing without distinguishing files and directories, or trying to perform more detailed comparison, it was necessary to combine various commands or create a new program. .

[0005]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in consideration of the above circumstances, and even for a set of data consisting of data files such as a database having a well-defined structure, a directory So data
An object of the present invention is to provide a data comparison device that compares data elements according to each set by simply specifying the set to be compared, even for a set of data such as files that are simply grouped together. To do.

[0006]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention has means for storing a plurality of data files and at least two data elements each consisting of one or more data files. A means for designating a set as a comparison target, a means for discriminating each type of the designated data element set, and forming a data element from two or more data element sets to be compared according to the determined type The data comparison device is provided with means for sequentially extracting the data portions and means for comparing the data portions extracted from the two or more data sets to be compared.

Here, the above-mentioned designation means designates a data file, and the data file is constructed 1
The data element set may be designated, a directory may be designated, and one data element set formed by all the data files included in the directory may be designated.

With this configuration, when a data element set consisting of one or more data files is designated, the type of the designated data element set is discriminated, and the data portions forming the data elements are sequentially arranged according to the discrimination result. Taken out and compared.

[0009]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION

[Embodiment 1] FIG. 1 shows a data comparison apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. This embodiment is specifically realized in a personal computer, a workstation or the like, and each block is composed of hardware resources or software resources of the personal computer or the like.

In FIG. 1, the data comparison apparatus has a data storage unit 1, a set type identification unit 2, a display unit 3, a selection unit 4, a comparison unit 5 and a comparison result storage unit 6.

The data storage unit 1 stores various data files. The selection unit 4 specifies one or a plurality of data files stored in the data storage unit 1 as one data element set, and selects two or more data element sets as comparison targets. That is,
As the type of data element set, for example, FIG.
Some are shown in (B) and (C). FIG.
(A) shows a file of a general database system. In this case, a plurality of pairs of attribute names and attribute values are collected to form one item (record), and a plurality of these items are collected to form one data file. Each item is separated by the character string "*****".
Each item constitutes a data element. FIG. 2B shows a general spreadsheet file (CSV format),
In this case, first, the attribute names are separated by commas and arranged in the first line, and the attribute values of each item are arranged in the order of attribute names and separated by commas. Each item constitutes a data element. FIG. 2C shows a data file managed by the directory system. In this case, the data file exists in the directory, and the data element is stored in the data file.

When the data element set is composed of one data file, the data element set can be specified by the file name, and when the data element set is composed of the data files in the directory, The data element set can be specified by the directory name.

The set identification unit 2 is for determining the type of a data element set. There are three types as shown in FIG. 2, for example. The set identification unit 2 determines the type of the data element set based on the identification information of the identification information file shown in FIG. 3 (A), (B) and (C) are shown in FIG.
It is the identification information of the data element sets of (A), (B) and (C). The type of the data element set is determined with reference to the "type" number in the table of FIG. "1" means a data element set consisting of one data file of a general database, "2" means a data element set consisting of one data file of a general spreadsheet, "3"
If so, it indicates a data element set consisting of data files included in the directory.

This identification information file contains, in addition to the identification information,
It also contains information about the data structure of the data element set. That is, the information includes the delimiter of the item (record), the delimiter of the field, and the delimiter between the attribute name and the attribute value. However, in the example of (B), there is no delimiter between the attribute name and the attribute value. Further, in (C), the information of the file list included in the directory is also included in the identification information.

The identification information file and the data file (data element set) can be associated with each other by using the extension of the file name. For example, the data file is "xxx.dat" and the identification information file is "xxx.
x. inf ”. Further, information for associating the data file with the identification information file, for example, a link table may be separately used. Further, the identification information file may be stored in the directory, or the information in the identification information file may be stored in a predetermined position in the data file. The identification information may be held in a table format as shown in FIG. 3, or may be held in various formats such as a simple list format.

The comparison unit 5 compares the data elements extracted from the data element set selected as the comparison target. The element extracting unit 5a extracts a data element from the data element set. Details of the data element fetching operation and the comparing operation will be described later with reference to FIGS. 4 and 8.

The comparison result storage unit 6 stores the comparison result by the comparison unit 5, and the display unit 3 displays according to the stored contents.

FIG. 4 shows the flow of processing by the configuration of FIG. Two data element sets to be compared from the data storage unit 1 by the selection unit 4 (set A and set B)
Is designated (S1), the comparison unit 5 initializes the comparison result data for storing the comparison result (S2). next,
The element extracting unit 5a reads each element by a method according to the type of the set identified by the set type identifying unit 2, and stores the attribute data (pair of attribute name and attribute value) of each element in the attribute data buffer 104 (FIG. 6, FIG. 7, and FIG. 8. The attribute name buffer 104a and the attribute value buffer 104b are stored in a pair), and a pointer to the attribute data buffer is stored in the comparison result data 105 (FIG. 6, FIG.
(See FIG. 7 and FIG. 8) (S3). In order to compare the individual elements, the pointer 105 of the comparison result data
Based on the above, one attribute data of the element of the set A is read from the attribute data buffer 104 (hereinafter, the element of the set is read from the attribute data buffer based on the pointer of the comparison result data). At this time, if there are no elements in the set A, the result is displayed (S5, S14). Next, the elements of the set B are read (S6). At this time, if there is no element of the set B, the display of the result is started (S7, S14). The read attribute data of the elements of the set B is compared with the previously read attribute data of the elements of the set A to determine whether they are the same, different, or similar, and the result is held in the comparison result storage unit 6 (S8, S
9, S10, S11). At this time, if they are the same, the ID of the element of the set A is not necessary for the corresponding element of the set B (the element does not have to be the ID, and the element can be specified. Etc. may be used). Next, the next element is read from the set A, and the same processing is performed on all the elements (S12, S1).
3). When the processing is completed for all the elements, the comparison result storage unit 6 is displayed on the display unit 3.

In the procedure described above, the attribute data of each element is stored in the attribute data buffer 104 and the pointer is written in the comparison result data. However, the pointer is not written and the pointer is directly written in the comparison. The attribute data may be fetched from the attribute data buffer and the comparison result may be written in the comparison result data, or the attribute data of each element may be directly written in the comparison result data and the comparison may be performed based on it.

Next, the procedure executed in step S3 of FIG. 4, that is, the procedure of setting the pointer to the attribute data buffer of each element to the comparison result data will be described.

FIG. 5 shows the overall flow of this processing. In this figure, first, the identification information is read from the identification information file for the comparison target data element set (S2).
1). Next, the type of the data element set to be compared is determined from this identification information (S22). Then, the cutout process according to this type is called (S23), and the pointer to the attribute data buffer 104a in which the attribute data of each element cut out by this cutout process is written is set in the comparison result data (S24).

The cut-out process called in step S23 of FIG. 5 differs depending on the type of set. FIGS. 6, 7 and 8 show the set types (A) and (B) of FIG. 2, respectively.
The extraction processing of each of (C) and (C) will be described.

FIG. 6 shows a procedure for cutting out attribute data of a data element from a data element set consisting of one data file 101 having a data structure of a general database. In this figure, the data file 102 and the identification information file 101 are associated with each other, and the data element is first extracted for each data element, and the attribute data (attribute name and attribute value) is cut out. The extraction processing of each element is performed as follows. [Step S31] The field delimiter is read from the identification information file 101, and the process proceeds to step S32. [Step S32] The item data buffer 103 is initialized, and the process proceeds to step S33. [Step S33] One row of data is read, and the process proceeds to step S34. [Step S34] It is determined whether the read row is equal to the field delimiter, and if they are equal, attribute read processing (described in detail later) is performed, and then the process proceeds to step S35. If they are not equal, the read row is returned to the item data buffer 103.
Add to. After that, the process proceeds to step S35. [Step S35] It is determined whether or not there is a next line, and if not, the cutout process ends. If there is, the next line is read and the process returns to step S34.

Each element cut out as described above is temporarily stored in the item data buffer 103, and attribute data (attribute name and attribute value) is read from this element.

The reading of the attribute data in step S34 is performed as follows. [Step S41] The attribute name attribute value delimiter is read from the identification information file 101, and the process proceeds to step 42. [Step S42] The attribute data buffer 104 (attribute name buffer 104a and attribute value buffer 104b) is initialized, and the process proceeds to step S43. [Step S43] One line of data is read from the item data, and the process proceeds to step S44. [Step S44] It is determined whether the read data has an attribute name attribute value delimiter, and if there is a delimiter, the process proceeds to step S45. If there is no break, the process proceeds to step S46. [Step S45] The part before the delimiter is stored in the attribute name buffer, and the part after the delimiter is stored in the attribute value buffer 1
It is stored in 04b. After that, it advances to step S49. [Step S46] It is determined whether or not the attribute buffer is empty. If it is empty, the process proceeds to step S47, and if it is not empty, the process proceeds to step S48. [Step S47] The read data is added to the attribute name buffer 104a, and the process proceeds to step S49. [Step S48] The read data is added to the attribute value buffer 104b, and the process proceeds to step S49. [Step S49] It is determined whether or not there is a next line. If so, return to step S, and if not, step S50
Proceed to. [Step S50] A pointer to the attribute data buffer 104 is stored in the comparison result data 105, and the attribute reading process ends.

FIG. 7 shows a procedure for cutting out attribute data of each element from a data element set consisting of one data file 202 having a general spreadsheet data structure. Also in this figure, the attribute data is cut out while associating the data file 202 with the identification information file 201. From the first line of the data file 202,
First, the attribute name is cut out, and the attribute value is cut out from the subsequent lines. The extraction process of the attribute data of each element is performed as follows. [Step S51] The field delimiter is read from the identification information file 201, and the process proceeds to step S52. [Step S52] The attribute name buffer 104 is initialized, and the process proceeds to step S53. [Step S53] The first line of the data is read, and the process proceeds to step S54. [Step S54] One character of data is read, and the process proceeds to step 55. [Step S55] It is determined whether or not the read character is a field delimiter, and if it is a delimiter, a new attribute name buffer 104a is initialized, and the process proceeds to step S56. If it is not a delimiter, the attribute name buffer 104a is added, and the process also goes to step S56. move on. [Step S56] It is determined whether or not there is the next character, and if there is, the process returns to step S55. If there is no character, attribute read processing (described in detail later) is executed, and step S
Proceed to 57. [Step S57] It is determined whether or not the element remains, and if not, the cutout process ends. If there is any, go to step 58. [Step S58] The same number of attribute data buffers 104 as the number of attribute name buffers 104a finally created in step S55 are initialized. [Step S59] The previous attribute name buffer 104a is copied. [Step S60] The attribute read process is executed (described in detail later), and the process returns to step S57.

Steps S56 and S of the above procedure
The attribute read process executed at 60 is as follows. [Step 61] The next one line (attribute value line) is read from the data file, and the process proceeds to step S62. [Step 62] The field delimiter is read from the identification information file 201, and the process proceeds to step S63. [Step 63] The attribute value buffer 104b is initialized and the process proceeds to step S64. [Step 64] One character of data is read, and the process proceeds to step S65. [Step 65] It is determined whether the read character is a field delimiter, and if it is a delimiter, the next attribute value buffer 104b is initialized, and the process proceeds to step S66. If it is not a delimiter, it is added to the attribute value buffer 104b and step S
Proceed to 66. [Step 66] Determine whether there is the next character,
If there is, the next one character is read and the process proceeds to step S65. If not, the pointer to the attribute data buffer 104 is stored in the comparison result data 105, and the attribute reading process ends.

FIG. 8 shows a data element set 303 consisting of data files 302b in the same directory 302a.
The procedure for cutting out the attribute data of each element is shown below. Also in this figure, the attribute data is cut out while associating the data file 302b with the identification information file 301. The processing in this case is based on the processing described in FIG. However, multiple data files 30
Since 2b constitutes one data element set, FIG.
The above process must be repeated for each data file. The extraction process of the attribute data of each element is performed as follows. [Step S71] The field delimiter is read from the identification information file 301. It proceeds to step S72. [Step S72] The item data buffer 103 is initialized, and the process proceeds to step S73. [Step S73] The file list is read from the identification information, the first file is opened, and the process proceeds to step S74. [Step S74] One line of data is read from the file, and the process proceeds to step S75. [Step S75] It is determined whether the read row is equal to the field delimiter, and if they are equal, attribute reading processing is performed, and then the process proceeds to step S76. If they are not equal, the read row is added to the item data buffer 103. After that, it advances to step S76. [Step S76] It is determined whether or not there is a next line, and if not, the process proceeds to step S77, and if there is, the next line is read and the process returns to step S75. [Step S77] It is determined whether or not the next file exists in the file list. If there is the next file, the file is opened and the process returns to step S74. If not, the cutout process ends.

Note that the attribute read process of step S75 is the same as the attribute read process (steps S41 to S50) described above in connection with FIG. 6, and therefore description thereof will not be repeated.

In this example, the directory has one piece of identification information, but each file in the directory may have identification information. In that case, the field delimiter is not step S71 but step S73.
Then, in step S77, the file is opened and the field delimiter is read from the corresponding identification information.

Next, the element comparison processing performed in step S8 of FIG. 4 will be described.

FIG. 9 shows the flow of processing when comparing elements. The attribute values of the elements of set A and the attribute values of the elements of set B are read out and compared (S81, S82, S8).
3, S84). When the comparison is completed for all the attributes, the same, different, or similar is returned as a result depending on the number of matching attributes (S85, S86, S87). In this example, the similar criterion is whether or not n or more attributes are equal, but when the specific attributes are equal, another criterion may be a certain number of different characters if the attribute value is a character. Also, these criteria may be provided by the user.

FIG. 10 shows an example of comparison result data. Here, the element a1 of the set A indicates that the element b1 of the set B is the same, the element a2 of the set A is the element b2 of the set B,
It is shown that it is similar to b7, that the element am is not included in the set rule, and that the element a4 of the set A is the same as the element b5 of the set B and is similar to the element b4 of the set B. Similarly, the element b1 of the set B is the same as the element a1 of the set A, the element bm of the set B is the same as the element a9, the element b2 of the set B is similar to the element a2 of the set A, and the element b4 of the set B is similar. Indicates that it is similar to the element a4 of the set A.

FIG. 11 is a display example of the comparison result display unit 3. In this example, a list of elements unique to the set A, elements unique to the set B, and elements common to both the set A and the set B are included in the list, and in addition, elements similar to each other in the set A and the set B are included. Are listed, and similar elements are connected by a line.

FIG. 12 shows another display example. In this example, the selection unit 4 designates the element a2 of the set A, thereby displaying an element list similar to the element a2. Of course, if the designated element is B, the element of the set A that is the same as or similar to that element is listed.

It should be noted that these lists display only those corresponding to headings (if the data does not have headings, a file name, part of the content character string, reduced images, etc. may be used). , Can be displayed in various ways such as displaying the data body.

As described above, in this embodiment, the data stored in various forms can be easily compared by determining the form.

[Second Embodiment] Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described.

FIG. 13 shows the overall construction of this embodiment. In this figure, the parts corresponding to those in FIG. 1 are designated by the corresponding reference numerals and detailed description thereof will not be repeated. In FIG. 13, a storage unit 1 and a set identification unit 2 which are separable as shown by a broken line are connected to a main body unit via a connection unit 7.
FIG. 8 shows an example in which the portable personal computer 11 is used as the storage unit 1 and the set identification unit 2, the comparison unit 5 and the like are placed in the desk-top type computer 10, and the connection unit 7 is connected by the serial line 7a. is there. The connection part 7 is
For example, parallel line, Ethernet, infrared (optical) communication,
Electromagnetic induction may be used.

The detachable storage unit 1 is, as shown in FIG. 15, a removable storage medium such as a PC card or a floppy disk, or a CD / RO.
Read-only media such as M may be used.

[Third Embodiment] Next, a third embodiment of the present invention will be described.

FIG. 16 shows the third embodiment as a whole, in which the portions corresponding to those in FIG. 1 or 13 are designated by the corresponding reference numerals and detailed description thereof will not be repeated.
In this figure, a detachable storage unit 1 and a set species identification unit 2 shown by broken lines are provided, and a correspondence information storage unit 8 is further provided. The correspondence information storage unit 8 stores information indicating which set is compared with which set. When one set is designated, the selection unit 4 reads out what the corresponding set is from the correspondence information storage unit 8 and designates the set to be compared. At this time, when the detachable storage unit 1 that holds only one set is newly connected, the selection unit 4 selects the set corresponding to the set in the newly connected storage unit 1 as the correspondence information storage unit. 8 allows identification and comparison of those sets.

As described above, in this embodiment, by making only one set in the storage unit 1 that can be cut off, the comparison can be automatically performed only by being connected to the connection unit 7. Further, by registering the corresponding set in the comparison target storage unit 8 in advance, the user does not need to instruct the comparison target, and the operation can be simplified.

[0044]

As described above, according to the present invention, data such as a database having a well-defined structure can be created.
For both a set of data consisting of files and a set of data such as a directory in which data files are simply grouped, simply specify the set to be compared A comparison of data elements can be made.

[0045]

According to the present invention, since the comparison is performed according to the type of each set only by designating the data element set in the storage unit, it is not necessary to create a special formula for logical operation. Data comparisons of different data element sets can be performed. Further, since a connection unit is provided and a plurality of storage units can be connected and compared, even if the same data tends to be stored in different storage units as a plurality of sets (data files), the comparison can be easily performed.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a first embodiment of the present invention as a whole.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating types of data element sets to be compared in the first embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating identification information used in the first embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the overall operation of the above-described first embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating in detail step S3 of FIG.

FIG. 6 is a diagram for explaining the flowchart of FIG.

FIG. 7 is a diagram for explaining the flowchart of FIG.

FIG. 8 is a diagram for explaining the flowchart of FIG.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart illustrating in detail step S8 of FIG.

10 is a diagram showing an example of comparison result data of Example 1. FIG.

11 is a diagram showing a display example of comparison result data in Example 1. FIG.

FIG. 12 is a diagram showing another display example of the comparison result data of the first embodiment.

FIG. 13 is a diagram showing Embodiment 2 of the present invention.

FIG. 14 is a diagram illustrating a specific example of the second embodiment.

FIG. 15 is a diagram illustrating a specific example of the second embodiment.

FIG. 16 is a diagram showing Embodiment 3 of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 storage unit 2 set type identification unit 3 display unit 4 selection unit 5 comparison unit 5a element extraction unit 6 comparison result storage unit 7 connection unit 8 correspondence information storage unit

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A means for storing a plurality of data files, a means for designating at least two data element sets each comprising one or more data files as comparison targets, and a means for designating the designated data element sets. A means for discriminating each type, a means for sequentially extracting data portions forming data elements from the two or more data element sets to be compared according to the discriminated type, and a means to retrieve from the two or more data sets to be compared. And a means for comparing the stored data portions. 2. The designating means designates a data file, designates one set of data elements which the data file comprises, designates a directory, and all the data files included in the directory. The data comparison device according to claim 1, wherein one data element set formed by is specified. 3. A first information processing device and a second information processing device are connected via a transmission line, and one or more data files of the first information processing device and the second information processing device are connected. In a data comparison method for comparing with one or more data files, a step of designating one data element set consisting of one or more data files stored in the first information processing apparatus, the first Discriminating the type of the data element set specified in the information processing apparatus, and sequentially processing the data portions forming the data elements from the data element set according to the type discriminated in the first information processing apparatus. And a step of transmitting the data portion fetched by the first information processing apparatus to the second information processing apparatus via the transmission path. And a step of designating one data element set made up of one or more data files stored in the second information processing apparatus, and the data element set designated in the second information processing apparatus. Determining the type of the data element, sequentially extracting the data portion forming the data element from the data element set according to the type determined by the second information processing apparatus, and The data portion transmitted from the first information processing device to the second information processing device;
And a step of comparing the extracted data portion in the second information processing apparatus.