JP2011257921A - Character string selection device, character string selection method, and program therefor - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a character string selection device capable of appropriately and fast acquiring a candidate of a character string which a user wants to input.SOLUTION: A character index generation unit 122 stores, for each character included in terms which a term storage unit 131 stores, a character index indicating the terms including such character. When calculating an LCS (Longest Common Subsequence) between a character string which a user has inputted and the term which the term storage unit 131 stores, a processing unit 120 selects the term including such character included in the character string which the user has inputted, based on the character index, and calculates the LCS of the selected character. In this way, a character string selection device can narrow down the term for calculating the LCS, thereby appropriately and fast acquiring a candidate of the character string which the user wants to input.

Description

  The present invention relates to a character string selection device, a character string selection method, and a program.

One of the term input support methods for reducing the burden of a user inputting a term (character string) on a computer or the like is to use a term similar to the input character string from a group of terms stored in advance by the computer or the like. There is a method of selecting and displaying as a term candidate and accepting a user's selection operation for any of the displayed term candidates.
For example, when inputting a disease name on a medical certificate displayed on a display screen of a computer, as shown in FIG. 12A, the computer is similar to this “colon” in response to an input of “colon” by a user. As a term, a term including “colon” such as “colitis” or “colon cancer” is selected and displayed near the lower part of the input column. When the user selects “colon polyp” using the cursor key or the mouse, the computer displays the selected “colon polyp” in the input field.

On the other hand, when the user inputs “cancer” without selecting a term, the computer includes two or more characters in the input character string “colon cancer” as shown in FIG. Select and display terms such as “colitis” and “colon mucosal cancer”.
In this way, by displaying not only terms that include all of the entered character string, but also terms that include a portion, it is possible to incorrectly enter “colonitis” as “colon cancer” or “metastasis” The term intended by the user can also be displayed when there is an error in the input character string, such as insufficient input to erroneously input “colon cancer” as “metastatic colorectal cancer”.

As a method for selecting such a term similar to the input character string as a term candidate, for example, it is conceivable to use a method disclosed in Patent Document 1. In this document, a method of acquiring a “notation shaking” term in which terms representing the same thing such as “leucocyte” and “leukocyte” are different. In this method, in order to collect notation fluctuation terms for a term of interest, first, for each of the terms stored in advance, the degree of coincidence and character string length of N-grams (partial character strings of N characters) with the term of interest The similar terms are narrowed down by comparing the similarities (hereinafter, this narrowing is referred to as “first narrowing”). Further, the terms are further narrowed down based on the edit distance weighted by the cost set for each editing content, such as 10 points for uppercase and lowercase letters and 100 points for numbers. Is referred to as “second refinement”).
When this method is used to select term candidates, it contains many partial character strings in common with the input character string, the number of characters is similar to the input character string, and the cost of the input character string is low. A character string obtained by performing a small conversion operation can be extracted.

JP-A-2005-352888

However, when the method disclosed in Patent Document 1 is used for selecting term candidates, terms with a short editing distance are excluded at the stage of the first narrowing down, and finally the terms that the user wants to input are extracted. The risk of being unable to do so increases.
In order to avoid such an inconvenience, it is conceivable to reduce the number of terms to be excluded by relaxing the narrowing-down requirement in the first narrowing-down stage. However, if the number of terms excluded in the stage of performing the first narrowing is reduced, the number of terms to be second narrowed increases, and the time required for processing increases. In order not to give the user the stress of waiting for the display of term candidates, it is necessary to select and display term candidates at high speed, for example, displaying term candidates within 0.1 seconds after a character string is input. There is a need (for example, the term candidates shown in FIG. 12B need to be displayed immediately after the input of “cancer” in FIG. 12B). There is a possibility that a candidate cannot be selected and displayed.

  The present invention has been made in consideration of such circumstances, and the object thereof is to provide a character string selection device, a character string selection method, and a character string selection method that can appropriately and quickly obtain character string candidates that a user wants to input. To provide a program.

  [1] The present invention has been made to solve the above-described problem, and a character string selection device according to an aspect of the present invention includes an acquisition unit that acquires a first character string, and one or more second A character string group storage unit for storing a character string group with identification information in which each of the character strings is associated with character string identification information for identifying the second character string; For all the characters included in the second character string, for each of the different characters, the character and the character string identification information of the second character string including the character and included in the character string group with identification information , And a character index storage unit that stores a character index associated with the character string, and the character string identification information associated with the character included in the first character string by the character string identification information. A character string selector that selects the character string Characterized by including the.

  [2] A character string selection device according to an aspect of the present invention is the character string selection device described above, wherein the character string selection unit includes a character included in the selected second character string, and the first character string selection device. Character number information indicating the number of characters common to the characters included in one character string is generated.

  [3] A character string selection device according to an aspect of the present invention is the character string selection device described above, wherein the character string selection unit includes a character included in the partial character string of the first character string, Character number information indicating the number of characters common to the characters included in the second character string is generated, the character number information, the number of characters included in the first character string, and the number of characters included in the partial character string, Generation of information indicating the similarity between the first character string and the second character string is stopped when a value determined based on the difference between the first character string and the second character string is less than a predetermined threshold value. And

  [4] In the character string selection method according to one aspect of the present invention, an identification in which each of the one or more second character strings is associated with character string identification information for identifying the second character string. A character string group storage unit that stores a character string group with information, and for all the characters included in the second character string in the character string group with identification information, for each of the different characters, the character and the character And a character index storage unit for storing a character index associated with the character string identification information of the second character string included in the character string group with the identification information. In the column selection method, the acquisition unit acquires the first character string, and the character string selection unit is associated with the character included in the first character string by the character index. The first identified by the character string identification information Characterized by the character string selection step of selecting a character string, a provided.

  [5] Further, the program according to one aspect of the present invention provides a character with identification information in which each of the one or more second character strings is associated with character string identification information for identifying the second character string. For each character included in the second character string in the character string group with identification information and the character string group storage unit that stores the string group, for each different character, the character and the character are included. A computer as a character string selection device, comprising: a character index storage unit that stores a character index associated with the character string identification information of the second character string included in the character string group with identification information; An acquisition step of acquiring a first character string; and selecting the second character string identified by the character string identification information associated with the character included in the first character string by the character index Character string selection Tsu is a program to be executed and up, the.

According to this invention, the character string selection unit selects the second character string identified by the character string identification information associated with the character included in the first character string by the character index.
As a result, the character string selection unit can select the second character string without determining whether or not the second character string does not include a character common to the first character string. Can be selected at high speed. As a result, the second character string can be obtained at high speed as a character string candidate to be input by the user.
In addition, the character string selection unit selects the first character by selecting the second character string identified by the character string identification information associated with the character included in the first character string by the character index. Only the second character string including the characters included in the column can be selected. In this respect, the second character string can be appropriately obtained as a character string candidate input by the user.

  According to this invention, the number of characters common to the character included in the selected second character string and the character included in the first character string is further calculated using the selected second character string. The number of characters shown information is generated. Thereby, the second character string having a large number of characters in the character number information can be grasped as having a high degree of commonality with the first character string.

  According to this invention, after generating the number-of-characters information indicating the number of characters common to the characters included in the partial character string of the first character string and the characters included in the second character string, When the value determined based on the information and the difference between the number of characters included in the first character string and the number of characters included in the partial character string is less than a predetermined threshold, the first character string and the first character string Generation of information indicating the degree of similarity with the second character string is stopped. As a result, the second character string whose character number information is less than the threshold value can be excluded, the character number information can be generated for the remaining second character string, and the processing for generating the character number information can be performed at high speed. Can do.

It is a block diagram which shows schematic structure of the character string input assistance system in one Embodiment of this invention. In the embodiment, it is a figure which shows the example of the term list which the term memory | storage part 131 memorize | stores. In the same embodiment, it is a figure which shows the example of the character index which the character index memory | storage part 132 memorize | stores. It is a figure which shows the example of the matrix used in order to calculate LCS length. It is a figure which shows the example of the matrix used in order to calculate the character position information which shows the position where LCS of an input character string and a term appears in a term. In the same embodiment, it is a flowchart which shows the process sequence in which the character index production | generation part 122 produces | generates a character index. In the embodiment, a processing unit 120 calculates a LCS length and generates a character position information. In the embodiment, a processing unit 120 calculates a LCS length and generates a character position information. In the embodiment, it is a figure which shows the example of the order determination of the term by the order determination part 125. FIG. In the same embodiment, it is a figure which shows the example of the parameter | index which the order | rank determination part 125 produces | generates. In the same embodiment, it is a figure which shows the example which the display part 230 displayed the list | wrist of a term. It is a figure which shows the example of a display of the candidate of the character string which the user input when a user inputs a character string.

Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram showing a schematic configuration of a character string input support system according to an embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 1, the character string input support system 1 includes a character string input support device (character string selection device) 100 and a terminal device 200. The character string input support apparatus 100 includes a communication unit (acquisition unit) 110, a processing unit (character string selection unit) 120, and a storage unit 130. The processing unit 120 includes a processing control unit 121, a character index generation unit 122, an LCS length calculation unit 123, a character position information generation unit 124, and a rank determination unit 125. The storage unit 130 includes a term storage unit (character string group storage unit) 131, a character index storage unit 132, an LCS length matrix storage unit 133, and a character position information matrix storage unit 134. The terminal device 200 includes a communication unit 210, an input unit 220, and a display unit 230.

The character string input support system 1 is a character string candidate (character string candidate) that the user wants to input based on a character string already input by the user (first character string; hereinafter referred to as “input character string”). Is displayed.
The character string input support device 100 acquires an input character string from the terminal device 200, determines the rank of each character string candidate that the user wants to input based on the acquired character string, and determines the character string that the user wants to input. A list in which candidates are arranged according to the determined order is generated and transmitted to the terminal device 200.
The communication unit 110 transmits / receives data to / from the terminal device 200.
The storage unit 130 stores in advance terms that are candidates for character strings that the user wants to input. In addition, the storage unit 130 functions as a working memory when the character string input support device 100 determines the ranking of terms that are character string candidates that the user wants to input. The storage unit 130 is realized on a storage device included in the character string input support device 100.

The term storage unit 131 stores in advance a term (second character string) that is a candidate for a character string that the user wants to input in a list format.
FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of a term list stored in the term storage unit 131. As shown in the figure, in each line of the term list, a term that is a candidate for a character string that the user wants to input and a term ID that is an identification number of the term are stored in association with each other. The term list is generated, for example, by adding a term ID to each term included in a dictionary in a certain field. In the example of the figure, the term list is generated by adding a term ID to a disease name.
The term ID is information for identifying each term and information indicating the order of each term in the term list.
Note that the number of terms stored in the term list is not limited to seven shown in the figure, and may be any number.

The character index storage unit 132 stores, for each character included in the term stored in the term storage unit 131, a character index indicating a term including the character.
FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of a character index stored in the character index storage unit 132. As shown in the figure, each line of the character index stores a character included in any term in the term list and a term ID list indicating a term including the character. The character index of the figure shows the term including the character by the term ID for each character included in the term in the term list of FIG. For example, the term “small intestine cancer” associated with the term ID “1” in the term list of FIG. 2 includes the characters “small”, “intestine”, and “cancer”. Therefore, the term ID “1” is included in the term ID list in any of the line including the character “small”, the line including the character “intestine”, and the line including the character “cancer” in the character index of FIG. Contains.

The LCS length matrix storage unit 133 is a working memory that stores an LCS length matrix generated when the character string input support device 100 determines the ranking of terms.
Hereinafter, the LCS length matrix stored in the LCS length matrix storage unit 133 will be described with reference to FIG.
FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of a matrix used for calculating the LCS length. FIGS. 5A and 5B show examples of matrices used for calculating the LCS length.
The matrix in FIG. 5A is a matrix having a row of the number of characters of the input character string + 1 and a column of the number of characters of the term + 1 stored in the term storage unit 131, and each element stores a non-negative integer. In the following, the top row (row corresponding to the initial value) of the matrix in FIG. 4A is the 0th row, and the leftmost column (column corresponding to the initial value) is the 0th column.

Here, LCS (Longest Common Subsequence, longest common subsequence) is the longest (the number of characters is large) among the partial sequences (common subsequence) common to two character strings. The common partial sequence does not need to appear continuously in each character string, but needs to appear in the same order in the two character strings. In the case of “colon intramucosal cancer” and “colon mucinous cancer” in FIG. 4A, the letters “large”, “intestine”, “viscosity”, and “cancer” appear in the same order. Is “colonous carcinoma of the large intestine”, and the number of characters of LCS (hereinafter referred to as “LCS length”) is 4.
Thus, since the LCS length indicates the number of characters common to the two character strings, it can be used as information indicating the similarity between the two character strings.

  Each element of the matrix in FIG. 4A indicates the LCS length of the term or its partial character string and the input character string or its partial character string corresponding to the position of the element. For example, the element a156 in the fifth row and sixth column of the matrix of FIG. 4A indicates the LCS length “4” of the input character string “colon mucinous cancer” and the term “colon mucosal carcinoma”. The element a124 in the second row and the fourth column of the matrix of FIG. 4A is a partial character string of two characters from the beginning of the input character string (that is, the input character string when the two characters are inputted from the beginning). The number of characters “2” of the LCS “colon” with “colon” and a partial character string “colon mucosa” of 4 characters from the beginning of the term is shown.

The LCS of the two character strings can be calculated recursively from the LCS of the partial character strings.
When the last character of two character strings is the same, the LCS can be obtained by adding the last character to the LCS of the partial character string obtained by removing the last character from each character string. For example, the end characters of the input character string “colon mucinous cancer” and the term “colon mucosa cancer” are both “cancer”. The LCS “colon mucosal cancer” of “colon mucinous cancer” and “colon mucosal carcinoma” is derived from the input string “colon mucinous cancer” excluding “cancer” and the term “colon mucosal cancer” It is obtained by adding "cancer" to "colon mucosa" with "intestinal mucosa" excluding "cancer" from "cancer". Therefore, the value “4” of the element a156 in the fifth row and sixth column (the number of characters of “colon mucosa”) is set to the value “3” (the number of characters of “colon mucosa”) of the element a145 in the fourth row and fifth column. 1 (the number of characters of “cancer”) is added.

  On the other hand, if the end of the two character strings are different, the LCS of the partial character string obtained by removing the end character from the one character string is the same as the LCS having the larger number of characters (if both values are equal, Both values are the same). For example, the letters at the end of “colon” and “colon mucosa” are different for “intestine” and “membrane”, respectively. Here, the LCS of “colon” and “colon mucosa” obtained by removing the last letter “membrane” from “colon mucosa” is “colon”. The LCS of “large” obtained by removing the last letter “intestine” from “large intestine” and “colon mucosa” is “large”. The LCS “colon” of “colon” and “colon mucosa” is the same as the “colon”, which is the larger of the two LCSs “colon” and “large”. Therefore, the value “2” (number of characters of “colon”) of the element a124 in the second row and fourth column is equal to the value “2” (number of characters of “colon”) of the element a123 of the second row and third column, and the first Of the value “1” (number of characters of “large”) of the element a114 in the row 4th column, it is the same as “2” which is the larger value.

  As described above, when the corresponding character in the input character string is the same as the corresponding character in the term, the value of each element of the matrix in FIG. Is the same as the value. On the other hand, if the corresponding character in the input string is different from the corresponding character in the term, it is the same as the larger value of the value of the element on the left and the value of the element on the upper left (both If the values are equal, both values are the same).

Here, in the input character string “colon mucinous carcinoma” in FIG. 4A, the character “fluid” is not common to the term “colon mucosal carcinoma” and is included in the LCS “colonous mucosal carcinoma”. Absent. Therefore, for both the term “colon mucosa cancer” or its partial character string, the LCS length of the input character string with the partial character string “colon mucus” is the same as the “colon mucosa” excluding the character “liquid”. It is the same as the LCS length. For example, looking at the term partial character string “in the large intestine mucosa”, the LCS of “in the large intestine mucosa” and “colon mucus” is “colon mucosa”, and the LCS length (value of element a145) is “3”. It is. The LCS of “colon mucosa” and “colon mucosa” obtained by removing “liquid” from “colon mucus” is also “colon mucosa”, and the LCS length (value of element a135) is “3”.
For this reason, the value of the fourth line (line corresponding to the character “liquid”) of the LCS matrix matches the value of the third line (line corresponding to the character “sticky”) on the upper side.

As described above, the value of the row in the matrix of FIG. 4A corresponding to the character not included in the term in the input character string matches the value of the upper adjacent row. Therefore, the LCS length matrix storage unit 133 stores, as an LCS length matrix, a matrix obtained by deleting rows corresponding to characters not included in the terms from the matrix in FIG. The value of the element in the bottom rightmost column of this LCS length matrix matches the value of the element in the bottom rightmost column of the matrix of FIG. That is, the value of the element in the bottom rightmost column of the LCS length matrix indicates the LCS length of the input character string and the term.
For example, the LCS length matrix storage unit 133 stores the LCS length matrix in FIG. 4B in which the row corresponding to the character “liquid” not included in the term is deleted from the matrix in FIG. The value “4” of the element a246 in the bottom rightmost column of this matrix indicates the number of characters of the LCS “colon mucosa” of the input character string “colon mucosa cancer” and the term “colon mucosa cancer”, that is, the LCS length. ing.
As will be described later, the LCS length matrix is generated using the character index stored in the character index storage unit 132.

Returning to FIG. 1, the character position information matrix storage unit 134 is a working memory that stores a character position information matrix generated when the character string input support device 100 determines the ranking of terms.
Hereinafter, the character position information matrix stored in the character position information matrix storage unit 134 will be described with reference to FIG.
FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating an example of a matrix used for calculating character position information indicating a position where an LCS of an input character string and a term appears in the term. FIGS. 5A and 5B show examples of matrices used for calculating character position information.
The matrix in FIG. 6A is a matrix having the number of characters of the input character string + 1 and the number of columns of the term character number + 1 stored in the term storage unit 131, and each element has a bit string (binary number). Is stored. In the following, the top row (row corresponding to the initial value) of the matrix in FIG. 5A is the 0th row, and the leftmost column (column corresponding to the initial value) is the 0th column.

  Each element of the matrix in FIG. 5A stores character position information indicating the position where each character of the LCS of the input character string and the term stored in the term storage unit 131 appears in the term. Yes. The character position information is composed of a bit string, and indicates the position of each character in order from the first (first) in the input character string in order from the first place (rightmost bit). For example, in the element b156 in the fifth row and the sixth column of the matrix of FIG. 5A, the rightmost bit indicates the position of the first character “Large” in the input character string, and so on. Indicates the position of “intestine”, the third indicates the position of “viscous”,..., The sixth (leftmost bit) indicates the position of “cancer”. Here, each character of the LCS “colon mucosal carcinoma” of the input character string “colon mucinous carcinoma” and the term “colon mucosal carcinoma” is the first character from the head of the term “colon mucosal carcinoma” ”), The second character (“ intestine ”), the third character (“ viscous ”), and the sixth character (“ cancer ”). Accordingly, in the element b156 in the fifth row and sixth column of the matrix of FIG. 5A, the first, second, third, and sixth bits from the right are “1”, and the fourth and fifth bits are “0”. ing.

As described above, the LCS of the two character strings can be recursively calculated from the LCS of the partial character strings. For this reason, the character position information can also be recursively generated from the character position information of the partial character string.
When the last character of two character strings (input character string or its substring, and term or its substring) is the same, the character position information of these character strings is the character from the end of each character string. This is a value obtained by adding a number with the digit corresponding to the position of the last character as 1 to the character position information of the excluded partial character string. For example, in the matrix of FIG. 5A, the value “100111” (binary number) of the element b156 in the fifth row and sixth column is the value “111” (binary number) of the element b145 in the fourth row and fifth column. “00111” is omitted from the leading 0. Similarly, the leading zero of the character position information is omitted), and the sixth digit from the right corresponding to the position of the last character “cancer” is 1 It is a value obtained by adding “100,000” (binary number).

On the other hand, when the two character strings have different tails, the character position information of these character strings is the character string having the longer LCS length among the character position information obtained by removing the tail character from one character string. Is the same as the character position information. For example, in the matrix of FIG. 5A, the value “11” (binary number) of the element b124 in the second row and fourth column is the value “11” (binary number) of the element b123 in the second row and third column. , The value “11” (binary number) of the element b123 in the second row and third column corresponding to the character string having a long LCS length among the value “1” (binary number) of the element b114 in the first row and fourth column ).
If the LCS length is the same even if the last character is removed from any character string, it may be the same as any character position information. In this embodiment, it is the same as the character position information with the smaller value. This is because, as will be described later, a term in which a character included in the LCS appears at a position close to the head is regarded as a higher rank.

  In this way, the value of each element of the matrix in FIG. 5A is the value of the upper left element when the corresponding character in the input character string is the same as the corresponding character in the term, and the end of the term. This is the same as the value obtained by adding a number with the digit corresponding to the position of 1. On the other hand, when the corresponding character in the input character string is different from the corresponding character in the term, the value of the longer LCS length among the value of the element on the left and the value of the element on the upper left is The same value (if both LCS lengths are the same, it is the same as the value of the smaller element. Further, if both elements are the same value, they are the same as the values of both elements).

Here, as described with reference to FIG. 4, the character “liquid” in the input character string “colon mucinous carcinoma” is not in common with the term “colon mucosa cancer”, and LCS “colonous mucosal cancer” Not included. For this reason, as in the case of the LCS length described in FIG. 4, the character position information with the partial character string “colon mucus” of the input character string for either the term “colon mucosa cancer” or its partial character string is: It is the same as the character position information of “colon viscosity” excluding the character “liquid”. For example, looking at the term partial character string “in the large intestine mucosa”, the LCS of “in the large intestine mucosa” and “colon mucus” is “colon mucosa”, and the character position information (value of element b145) is “111”. (Binary number). The LCS of “colon mucosa” and “colon mucosa” obtained by removing “liquid” from “colon mucus” is also “colon mucosa”, and the character position information is (value of element a135) “111” (two Decimal number).
For this reason, the value of the fourth row (row corresponding to the character “Liquid”) in the matrix of FIG. 5A matches the value of the third row above (row corresponding to the character “Viscosity”).

As described above, the value of the row in the matrix of FIG. 5A corresponding to the character not included in the term in the input character string matches the value of the upper adjacent row. Therefore, the character position information matrix storage unit 134 stores, as a character position information matrix, a matrix obtained by deleting rows corresponding to characters not included in the terms from the matrix in FIG. The value of the element in the bottom rightmost column of this character position information matrix matches the value of the element in the bottom rightmost column of the matrix of FIG. That is, the value of the element in the bottom rightmost column of the character position information matrix indicates character position information indicating the position where the LCS of the input character string and the term appears in the term.
For example, the character position information matrix storage unit 134 stores the character position information matrix in FIG. 5B in which the character “liquid” not included in the term is deleted from the matrix in FIG. The value “100111” of the element b246 in the bottom rightmost column of this matrix indicates that each character included in the LCS “colon mucosal cancer” of the input character string “colon mucinous cancer” and the term “colon mucosal cancer” is the term The positions appearing in “colon mucosa cancer” are shown.
As will be described later, the character string information matrix is generated using the character index stored in the character index storage unit 132.

Returning to FIG. 1, the processing unit 120 acquires a character string that has been input by the user from the terminal device 200 via the communication unit 110 and, based on the acquired character string, the candidate character string that the user wants to input. Determine each ranking. Then, the processing unit 120 generates a list in which character string candidates that the user wants to input are arranged according to the determined order, and transmits the list to the terminal device 200 via the communication unit 110. The processing unit 120 is realized, for example, when the CPU included in the character string input support device 100 reads out and executes a program from the storage unit 130.
The processing control unit 121 controls each unit to perform processing. The character index generation unit 122 generates a character index based on the term list stored in the term storage unit 131. The LCS length calculation unit 123 calculates the LCS length between the input character string and each term stored in the term storage unit 131. The character position information generation unit 124 generates character position information between the input character string and each term stored in the term storage unit 131. The rank determination unit 125 determines the rank of each term stored in the term storage unit 131 based on the LCS length calculated by the LCS length calculation unit 123 and the character position information generated by the character position information generation unit 124.

The terminal device 200 accepts input of a character string by the user and transmits the character string input support device 100 to the character string input support device 100. The term transmitted from the character string input support device 100 (candidate of the character string to be input by the user) They are displayed according to the order determined by the column input support device 100.
The communication unit 210 transmits / receives data to / from the character string input support device 100.
The input unit 220 includes a keyboard and a mouse, receives input of a character string by the user, and transmits the input character string to the character string input support device 100 via the communication unit 210. The display unit 230 includes a display screen such as a liquid crystal display, displays a character string input field, and displays a character string input by the user in the input field. In addition, the display unit 230 receives the ranked terms from the character string input support device 100 via the communication unit 210, and displays the received terms near the lower part of the input field according to the ranking.

Next, the operation of the character string input support system 1 will be described.
In the character string input support system 1, the character index generation unit 122 of the character string input support device 100 generates a character index in advance based on the term list stored in the term storage unit 131 and writes the character index in the character index storage unit 132. deep.
FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating a processing procedure in which the character index generation unit 122 generates a character index.
First, the character index generation unit 122 starts processing of a loop L1 that performs processing for each row of the term list stored in the term storage unit 131. In the following, the term to be processed in the loop L1 is displayed as “W”, and the term ID list of the term W is displayed as “i” (step S1).

Then, the character index generation unit 122 starts processing of a loop L2 that performs processing for each character included in the term W. In the following, the character to be processed in the loop L2 is displayed as “R” (step S2 above).
Then, the character index generation unit 122 sets the value of the variable k indicating the character index row to 1 (step S3).

  Next, the character index generation unit 122 determines whether or not the k-th row exists in the character index stored in the character index storage unit 132 (step S4). When it is determined that it exists (step S4: YES), the character index generation unit 122 determines whether or not the character R and the character included in the k-th row of the character index match. If it is determined that they do not match (step S5: NO), the character index generation unit 122 adds 1 to k, that is, sets the next line of the character index as a target (step S31), and returns to step S4.

  On the other hand, when it is determined in step S5 that they match (step S5: YES), the character index generation unit 122 determines whether i is included in the term ID list included in the k-th row of the character index. In this way, it is determined whether or not i is already included in order to avoid duplicate description (step S6). When it is determined that the character index is not included (step S6: NO), the character index generation unit 122 adds i to the term ID list included in the k-th row of the character index stored in the character index storage unit 132 (write). (Step S7).

Thereafter, the character index generation unit 122 determines whether or not the processing of the loop L2 has been performed on all the characters of the term W. If it is determined that there is an unprocessed character, the process returns to step S2 to continue the processing of loop L2 for the unprocessed character. On the other hand, if it is determined that all characters have been processed, the process proceeds to the next step S9 (step S8).
Then, the character index generation unit 122 determines whether or not the process of the loop L1 has been performed on all the rows in the term list. If it is determined that there is an unprocessed line, the process returns to step S1, and the process of the loop L1 is continued for the unprocessed line. On the other hand, if it is determined that the processing has been performed for all the rows, the processing in the figure is terminated (step S9).

On the other hand, when it is determined in step S4 that the kth row does not exist in the character index stored in the character index storage unit 132 (step S4: NO), and the term included in the kth row of the character index in step S6. If it is determined that i is included in the ID list (step S6: YES), the process proceeds to step S8.
In step S4, when it is determined that the k-th line does not exist in the character index stored in the character index storage unit 132 (step S4: NO), the character index stored in the character index storage unit 132 is displayed at the end of the character index. Add (write) a line containing R and the term ID list consisting of i.

When the generation of the character index is completed, the display unit 230 of the terminal device 200 displays the input field, and the input unit 220 waits for the user's input operation. Upon receiving a user input operation, the input unit 220 generates an input character string based on the operation. That is, the input unit 220 stores an input character string based on a past input operation. When a new input operation such as addition or deletion of a character is received, the input unit 220 converts the stored input character string based on the operation. Update (edit). The input unit 220 outputs the updated input character string to the display unit 230 and the communication unit 210.
The display unit 230 displays the input character string output from the input unit 220 in the input field (updates when the input character string is already displayed). Further, the communication unit 210 transmits the input character string output from the input unit 220 to the communication unit 110 of the character string input support device 100.
When receiving the input character string from the communication unit 210, the communication unit 110 outputs the received input character string to the processing unit 120.

The processing unit 120 calculates the LCS length of the input character string output from the communication unit 110 and each term stored in the term storage unit 131 and generates character position information.
7 and 8 are flowcharts showing a processing procedure in which the processing unit 120 calculates the LCS length and generates character position information. When the input character string is output from the communication unit 110, the processing unit 120 starts the processing in FIG.
First, the processing control unit 121 of the processing unit 120 controls the LCS length calculation unit 123 to initialize the LCS length matrix of the LCS length matrix storage unit 133, and initializes the character position information matrix of the character position information matrix storage unit 134. The character position information generation unit 124 is controlled so that

For each term stored in the term storage unit 131, the LCS length calculation unit 123 sets the number of rows of the LCS length matrix to the number of characters of the input character string + 1 and the number of columns to the number of characters of the term + 1. Then, the value of each element in the top row (the row corresponding to the “initial value” in the example of FIG. 4) and the value of each element in the leftmost column (the column corresponding to the “initial value” in the example of FIG. 4). Both values are set to “0”. The values of other elements are undecided at this point.
Further, for each term stored in the term storage unit 131, the character position information generation unit 124 sets the number of rows of the character position information matrix to the number of characters of the input character string + 1 and the number of columns to the number of characters of the term + 1. Then, the value of each element in the top row (the row corresponding to “initial value” in the example of FIG. 5) and the value of each element in the leftmost column (the column corresponding to “initial value” in the example of FIG. 5). Both values are set to “0”. The values of other elements are undecided at this point (step S101).

Next, the process control unit 121 starts a process of a loop L11 that sequentially processes each character of the input character string from the top. In the following, the position of the character to be processed in the loop L11 is displayed as “j” (in order from the top, 1, 2,...). (Step S102).
Next, the process control unit 121 selects a term ID list (in the character index, stored in the same line as the j-th character from the top of the input character string from among the character indexes stored in the character index storage unit 132. If there is no corresponding line, an empty list is read (step S103).
And the process control part 121 starts the process of the loop L12 which processes about each term corresponding to term ID contained in the term ID list acquired by step S103. Hereinafter, the term to be processed in the loop L12 is displayed as “W” (step S104).

Next, the processing control unit 121 calculates the LCS length that has been calculated, that is, the LCS length matrix corresponding to the term W among the LCS length matrices stored in the LCS length matrix storage unit 133. Read the value of the rightmost element. As will be described later, the calculated LCS length is the LCS length of the partial character string of the input character string and the term W. Further, the processing control unit 121 calculates the number of characters that have not been processed among the characters included in the input character string (the number of characters in the input character string−k + 1). Then, the process control unit 121 determines whether the total value of the calculated LCS length and the number of characters that have not been processed among the characters included in the input character string is equal to or greater than a predetermined threshold value. .
This threshold value is a threshold value for the LCS length of the input character string and the term, and only the term whose LCS length is equal to or greater than the threshold value is displayed on the display unit 230 of the terminal device 200 as a character string candidate to be input by the user. This threshold value is preset by the user, for example (step S105).
When it is determined that the total value of the calculated LCS length and the number of characters that have not been processed among the characters included in the input character string is equal to or greater than the threshold (step S105: YES), the processing control unit 121 Then, the processing of the loop L13 for sequentially processing each character of the term W from the top is started. In the following, the position of the character to be processed in the loop L11 is displayed as “k” (in order from the top, 1, 2,...). (The above is step S106).

Then, the process control unit 121 determines whether or not the jth character of the input character string is the same as the kth character of the term W (step S107). If it is determined that they are the same (step S107: YES), the processing control unit 121 outputs a signal indicating that the characters are the same to the LCS length calculation unit 123.
When a signal indicating that the characters are the same is output from the processing control unit 121, the LCS length calculation unit 123 uses the jth row kth column as the element value of the jth row kth column of the LCS length matrix. Write the value -1 of the element in the -1 column. That is, as described with reference to FIG. 4, a value obtained by adding 1 to the value of the upper left element is set (step S111).

Further, in step S107, it is determined that the characters are the same (step S107: YES), and the processing control unit 121 also outputs a signal indicating that the characters are the same to the character position information generation unit 124.
When a signal indicating that the characters are the same is output from the processing control unit 121, the character position information generation unit 124 uses the j-1st row as the value of the element in the jth row and the kth column of the character position information matrix. Write the value of the element in column k−1 +2 ^k−1 . That is, as described with reference to FIG. 5, the value obtained by adding the number corresponding to the last position of the term to 1 is added to the value of the element on the upper left (step S112).

Thereafter, the process control unit 121 determines whether or not the process of the loop L13 has been performed for all the characters of the term W. If it is determined that there is an unprocessed character, the process returns to step S106, and the processing of loop L13 is continued for the unprocessed character. On the other hand, if it is determined that all characters have been processed, the process proceeds to the next step S142.
At the end of the loop L13, the LCS of the partial character string from the beginning of the input character string to the jth character and the term W is calculated. For example, when the input character string is “colon mucosa cancer” and the term W is “colon mucosa cancer” and j = 2, the upper three rows (the initial value row and the input value) of the LCS length matrix shown in FIG. The lines corresponding to the character strings “Large” and “Intestine” are generated. The value “2” of the element in the bottom rightmost column of this LCS length matrix is the CLS length (CLS is CLS) between the partial character string “colon” of 2 characters from the beginning of the input character string and the term W “colonal mucosal carcinoma” "Large colon" and CLS length is "2") (step S141).

And the process control part 121 determines whether the process of the loop L12 was performed with respect to all the terms which the term memory | storage part 131 memorize | stores. If it is determined that there is an unprocessed term, the process returns to step S104, and the processing of the loop L12 is continued for the unprocessed term. On the other hand, if it is determined that processing has been performed for all terms, the process proceeds to the next step S143 (step S142).
Then, the process control unit 121 determines whether or not the process of the loop L11 has been performed on all characters of the input character string. If it is determined that there is an unprocessed character, the process returns to step S102, and the processing of loop L11 is continued for the unprocessed character. On the other hand, if it is determined that processing has been performed for all characters, the processing in FIG. 5 ends (step S143).

  On the other hand, when it determines with it being less than a threshold value in step S105 (step S105: NO), the process control part 121 progresses to step S141. That is, even if it is assumed that all characters included in the input character string that have not yet been used for LCS length calculation constitute an LCS, if the LCS length of the term to be processed is less than the threshold, Needless to say, it is clear that the LCS length of this term will eventually be below the threshold. That is, it is determined that this term is not displayed on the display unit 230 of the terminal device 200. Therefore, the processing unit 120 stops the calculation of the LCS length and the generation of the character position information for this term to speed up the overall processing.

If it is determined in step S107 that the characters are different (step S107: NO), the processing control unit 121 determines that the element value in the j-1st row and the kth column of the LCS length matrix is the jth row and the k-1th row. It is determined whether or not the value is greater than or equal to the element value in the column (step S121). When it is determined that the value of the element in the j−1th row and the kth column is equal to or larger than the value of the element in the jth row and the k−1th column (step S121: YES), the processing control unit 121 determines that the j−1th row A signal indicating that the value of the element in the row k-th column is equal to or greater than the value of the element in the j-th row k-1 column is output to the LCS length calculator 123.
When the signal is output from the processing control unit 121, the LCS length calculation unit 123 writes the value of the element in the j-1st row and the kth column as the value of the element in the jth row and the kth column of the LCS length matrix. . That is, as described in FIG. 4, the same value as the larger value (here, the upper adjacent element) of the left adjacent value and the upper adjacent value (if both values are equal, both values are the same) (Same as step S122).

In step S121, the process control unit 121 determines that the value of the element in the j-1st row and the kth column is equal to or greater than the value of the element in the jth row and the k-1th column (step S121: YES) It is determined whether or not the value of the element in the j-1st row and the kth column of the LCS length matrix is equal to the value of the element in the jth row and the k-1th column (step S123). When it is determined that the values are equal (step S123: YES), the processing control unit 121 further determines that the value of the element in the j-1st row and the kth column of the character position information matrix is the jth row and the k-1th column. It is determined whether or not the value is equal to or less than the element value (step S124).
When it is determined in step S123 that the two values are different (step S123: NO), and in step S124, the value of the element in the j-1st row and the kth column is the value of the element in the jth row and the k-1th column. When it determines with it being below a value (step S124: YES), the process control part 121 outputs the signal which instruct | indicates to write an upper adjacent element to the character position information generation part 124. FIG.
When the signal is output from the processing control unit 121, the character position information generation unit 124 uses the value of the element in the jth row and the kth column as the value of the element in the jth row and the kth column of the character position information matrix. Write. That is, as described with reference to FIG. 5, the value of the LCS length which is longer (here, the upper adjacent element) is equal to the value of the element on the left side and the value of the upper adjacent element (the LCS of both). If the lengths are the same, the value is the same as the value of the smaller element, and if the values of both elements are the same, the value is the same as the values of both elements (step S125).
Thereafter, the process control unit 121 proceeds to step S141.

On the other hand, when it is determined in step S121 that the value of the element in the (j-1) th row and the kth column is less than the value of the element in the jth row and the (k-1) th column (step S121: NO), the processing control unit 121. Outputs a signal indicating that the value of the element in the j−1th row and the kth column is less than the value of the element in the jth row and the (k−1) th column to the LCS length calculation unit 123.
When the signal is output from the processing control unit 121, the LCS length calculation unit 123 writes the value of the element in the jth row and the k-1th column as the value of the element in the jth row and the kth column of the LCS length matrix. . That is, as described with reference to FIG. 4, it is set to the same value as the larger one of the left adjacent value and the upper adjacent value (here, the left adjacent element) (step S131).

Further, when it is determined in step S121 that the value of the element in the j-1st row and the kth column is less than the value of the element in the jth row and the (k-1) th column (step S121: NO), and step S124. In step S124, the process control unit 121 determines that the value of the element in the j-1st row and the kth column is larger than the value of the element in the jth row and the k-1th column (step S124: NO). A signal instructing to write the element is output to the character position information generation unit 124.
When the signal is output from the processing control unit 121, the character position information generation unit 124 uses the value of the element in the jth row and the (k-1) th column as the value of the element in the jth row and the kth column of the character position information matrix. Write. That is, as described in FIG. 5, the value of the LCS length that is longer (here, the element on the left) of the value of the element on the left side and the value of the element on the upper side (here, the LCS of both) is the same. If the lengths are the same, the value of the smaller element is the same) (step S132).
Thereafter, the process control unit 121 proceeds to step S141.

  Thus, the LCS length matrix and the character position information matrix are completed. The value of the element in the top rightmost column of the LCS length matrix indicates the LCS length of the corresponding term, and the value of the element in the top rightmost column of the character position information matrix is the LCS in the corresponding term. The appearance position of the included character, that is, the character position information is shown.

  In the case where no terms are narrowed down in step S105 of FIG. 7 (for example, when the threshold value is set to “0” or “1”), the processing unit 120 performs the LCS length matrix and the character position information. Instead of always generating a new matrix, the generated LCS length matrix and character position information matrix may be updated. For example, when one new character is added to the end of the input character string by the user's operation input, the partial character string excluding the last character in the input character string input to the processing unit 120 is the previous input character. Is identical to the column. Therefore, the LCS length calculation unit 123 may add a line to the end of each LCS length matrix, and the character position information generation unit 124 may add a line to the end of each character position information matrix. Then, the processing unit 120 completes the LCS length matrix and the character position information matrix according to the processing procedure of the loop L12 based on the last character of the newly input character string.

When the LCS length matrix and the character position information matrix are completed, the process control unit 121 controls the rank determination unit 125 to determine the rank of each term stored in the term storage unit 131.
The rank determination unit 125 is based on the LCS length, the character position information, the term length (number of characters), and the order in the term list (term ID value) for each term stored in the term storage unit 131. The ranking is determined, and a list of terms arranged based on the determined ranking is generated.
FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating an example of the ranking determination of terms by the ranking determination unit 125. This figure is an example when the input character string is “colon cancer”. Among the terms included in the term list shown in FIG. 1, the term having an LCS length of 3 or more, the ranking of each term, and the ranking are determined. The LCS length, the character position information, the number of characters of the term, and the term ID as a reference to be used are shown.

  The rank determination unit 125 first selects only terms whose LCS length is equal to or greater than a threshold as terms to be displayed on the display unit 230 of the terminal device 200. Specifically, the rank determination unit 125 compares the element in the bottom rightmost column of each LCS length matrix stored in the LCS length matrix storage unit 133 with the threshold value, and corresponds to the LCS length matrix indicating a value equal to or greater than the threshold value. Select only the terms that you want. Here, among the LCS length matrices stored in the LCS length matrix storage unit 133, there is also an LCS length matrix in which the LCS length calculation process is stopped as a result of the determination in step S105 of FIG. The element in the bottom rightmost column of this LCS length matrix may indicate a value smaller than the actual LCS length. However, as described with reference to FIG. 7 (step S105: NO), the term corresponding to this LCS length matrix is a term for which the LCS length is determined to be less than the threshold value. Has no effect.

Next, the rank determination unit 125 sets the higher the LCS length for each selected term (the higher the term, the higher the priority, that is, the easier it is to be displayed near the input field of the display unit 230). For terms with the same LCS length, terms with small character position information values are given higher ranks. Furthermore, for terms with the same LCS length and character position information values, terms with a small number of characters are ranked high, and terms with the same number of characters are ranked high .
As described above, the LCS length can be used as information indicating the similarity between the input character string and the term. Therefore, a term having a higher LCS length is ranked higher so that a term having a higher similarity to the input character string can be ranked higher, and a character string candidate that the user wants to input can be presented appropriately.
Further, the user normally inputs the characters in order from the beginning of the character string to be input. Therefore, a term in which an LCS with an already entered character string appears near the beginning is more appropriate as a candidate for a character string that the user wants to input than a term that appears near the end. By placing a term with a small character position information value at the top, it is possible to place a term in which the LCS with the entered character string appears near the top, and appropriately present the candidate for the character string that the user wants to input it can.

For example, the rank determination unit 125 generates an index indicating the rank for each term, and rearranges the terms based on the generated index.
FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating an example of an index generated by the rank determining unit 125.
The index shown in the figure includes LCS length (binary number display), decimal point, two's complement number of character position information (binary number display), term length (binary number display) two's complement number, The two's complement of the term ID (in binary notation) is generated by combining in this order. At that time, the rank determination unit 125 aligns the number of digits of the character position information (binary number display) with the number of term characters. In addition, the number of digits of the term length (binary number display) is aligned to the number of digits that can represent the longest term stored in the term storage unit 131. In addition, the number of digits of the term ID (binary number display) is aligned to the number of digits that can represent the maximum one of the term IDs stored in the term storage unit 131.

Also, the values in the figure indicate the index values generated for the term “colon mucosa cancer” when the input character string is “colon cancer”.
Since the number of characters of “colon cancer” is “3”, the integer part of the index shown in the figure is “11”, and the decimal part is the two's complement “011100” of the character position information “1000011”. And the two's complement “1... 1001” of the binary representation “0... 0110” of the term length “6” and the binary representation “0... 0101” of the term ID “5”. It is a value obtained by combining 2's complements “1... 1010”. By taking a 2's complement, a smaller value is generated as the original value is smaller.

The order determination unit 125 rearranges the terms in the descending order of the index, so that the terms are arranged in the order of the LCS length, and when the LCS length is the same, the character position information values are in ascending order. When the values of the character position information are the same, the terms are arranged in ascending order, and when the terms have the same length, the terms are arranged in ascending order of the term ID values.
Here, among the positions where the characters included in the LCS appear in the term, the value of the character position information becomes smaller as the term is located closest to the beginning (the end side of the term). Moreover, when the last appearance position is the same among the positions where the characters included in the LCS appear in the term, the value of the character position information becomes smaller as the second appearance position from the back is closer to the beginning. Similarly, when the 1st to i-1 (where i is a positive integer less than or equal to the LCS length) -th appearance positions are the same, the term with the i-th appearance position closer to the head has a smaller character position information value. In this regard, the character position information generation unit 124 generates character position information indicating a smaller value as the position where the character included in the LCS appears in the term is closer to the head.

The rank determination unit 125 generates a list including the sorted terms in the sorted order, and transmits the list to the terminal device 200 via the communication unit 110.
When the communication unit 210 of the terminal device 200 receives the list of terms from the order determination unit 125, the communication unit 210 outputs the received list to the display unit 230. The display unit 230 displays a list of terms output from the communication unit 210 near the lower part of the input field.

FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating an example in which the display unit 230 displays a list of terms. In the same figure, when the input character string is “colon cancer”, an example is shown in which terms having an LCS length of 3 or more are displayed among the terms in the term list shown in FIG. The rank determination unit 125 narrows down terms based on the set threshold value “3”, rearranges the terms according to the rank shown in FIG. 9, and generates a list including the terms in the rearranged order. Then, the display unit 230 displays this list.
When the user selects one of the terms included in this list by clicking with the mouse or the like, the input unit 220 outputs the selected term to the display unit 230 and the communication unit 210 as an input character string. Hereinafter, each unit performs the above-described processing.

  As described above, the character index storage unit 132 of the character string input support device 100 stores in advance a character index indicating a term including the character for each character included in the term stored in the term storage unit 131. . Then, when generating a list of candidate character strings that the user wants to input, the processing unit 120 selects (narrows) terms to be processed based on the character index. Thereby, the candidate of the character string which a user wants to input can be obtained appropriately for all terms whose LCS length is equal to or greater than a predetermined threshold at high speed.

  In addition, the processing unit 120 calculates the LCS length between the partial character string of the input character string and the term, and determines whether to stop generating information indicating the degree of similarity related to the term based on the calculated LCS length. To do. Specifically, when the total value of the number of unprocessed characters in the input character string and the calculated LCS length is less than a predetermined threshold, the LCS length calculation and character position information are performed for the term. Cancels generation of. Thereby, the candidate of the character string which a user wants to input can be appropriately obtained for all terms whose LCS length is equal to or greater than the threshold at high speed.

  Note that the information indicating the degree of similarity generated by the LCS length calculation unit 123 is not limited to the LCS length described above, and may be any information that is recursively generated based on whether a certain character is included in the term. For example, the number of characters that appear in common in the input character string and the term (in which the condition that the character sequence is the same in the calculation of the LCS length is not required) is calculated in the same manner as in the calculation of the LCS length described above. The partial character string of the input character string may be calculated recursively.

  Note that the processing control unit 121 may select all the terms included in the input character string among the terms included in the term list as candidates for the character string that the user wants to input. In this case, the processing control unit 121 selects all the terms obtained based on the term ID list in the loop 12 of FIG. 7 as candidates for character strings to be input by the user.

Note that, as described above, the character string input support device 100 may be realized by a computer. That is, a program for realizing all or part of the functions of the character string input support device 100 is recorded on a computer-readable recording medium, and the program recorded on the recording medium is read into a computer system and executed. The processing of each unit may be performed as necessary. Here, the “computer system” includes an OS and hardware such as peripheral devices.
Further, the “computer system” includes a homepage providing environment (or display environment) if a WWW system is used.
The “computer-readable recording medium” refers to a storage device such as a flexible medium, a magneto-optical disk, a portable medium such as a ROM and a CD-ROM, and a hard disk incorporated in a computer system. Furthermore, the “computer-readable recording medium” dynamically holds a program for a short time like a communication line when transmitting a program via a network such as the Internet or a communication line such as a telephone line. In this case, a volatile memory in a computer system serving as a server or a client in that case, and a program that holds a program for a certain period of time are also included. The program may be a program for realizing a part of the functions described above, and may be a program capable of realizing the functions described above in combination with a program already recorded in a computer system.

  The embodiment of the present invention has been described in detail with reference to the drawings. However, the specific configuration is not limited to this embodiment, and includes design changes and the like within a scope not departing from the gist of the present invention.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Character string input assistance system 100 Character string input assistance apparatus 110 Communication part 120 Processing part 121 Process control part 122 Character index production | generation part 123 LCS length calculation part 124 Character position information generation part 125 Order determination part 130 Storage part 131 Term storage part 132 Character index storage unit 133 LCS length matrix storage unit 134 Character position information matrix storage unit 200 Terminal device 210 Communication unit 220 Input unit 230 Display unit

Claims (5)

An acquisition unit for acquiring a first character string;
A character string group storage unit for storing a character string group with identification information in which each of the one or more second character strings is associated with character string identification information for identifying the second character string;
For all the characters included in the second character string in the character string group with identification information, for each different character, the character and the second character string including the character and included in the character string group with identification information A character index storage unit that stores a character index associated with the character string identification information of
A character string selection unit that selects the second character string identified by the character string identification information associated with the character included in the first character string by the character index;
A character string selection device comprising:   The character string selection unit generates character number information indicating the number of characters common to the characters included in the selected second character string and the characters included in the first character string. The character string selection device according to claim 1.   The character string selection unit generates character number information indicating the number of characters common to a character included in the partial character string of the first character string and a character included in the second character string, and the number of characters If the value determined based on the information and the difference between the number of characters included in the first character string and the number of characters included in the partial character string is less than a predetermined threshold, the first character string The character string selection device according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the generation of information indicating the similarity between the second character string and the second character string is stopped. A character string group storage unit for storing a character string group with identification information in which each of the one or more second character strings is associated with character string identification information for identifying the second character string;
For all the characters included in the second character string in the character string group with identification information, for each different character, the character and the second character string including the character and included in the character string group with identification information A character index storage unit that stores a character index associated with the character string identification information of
A character string selection method for a character string selection device comprising:
An acquisition step in which the acquisition unit acquires the first character string;
A character string selection step in which the character string selection unit selects the second character string identified by the character string identification information associated with the character included in the first character string by the character index; ,
A character string selection method comprising: A character string group storage unit for storing a character string group with identification information in which each of the one or more second character strings is associated with character string identification information for identifying the second character string;
For all the characters included in the second character string in the character string group with identification information, for each different character, the character and the second character string including the character and included in the character string group with identification information A character index storage unit that stores a character index associated with the character string identification information of
In a computer as a character string selection device comprising:
An acquisition step of acquiring a first character string;
A character string selection step of selecting the second character string identified by the character string identification information associated with the character included in the first character string by the character index;
A program for running

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