JPH01209527A - Data retrieving process method - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To improve the operability for retrieval of data carried out under plural retrieving conditions by processing the data having the largest pieces of satisfactory retrieving conditions as the data to be designated among those extracted data. CONSTITUTION:A data retrieving process part 4 receives the designation of plural retrieving conditions and takes the records one by one out of a data base 2 to extract the records that satisfy the retrieving conditions of the prescribed number or more which are decided by the prescribed order in terms of the designated retrieving conditions. Then the record having the largest pieces of satisfactory retrieving conditions is held as the retrieving result among those extracted records. Then the records held as the retrieving results are processed as the records to be designated after all records are processed. Therefore the record which satisfies partially the retrieving conditions is automatically obtained as the retrieving result in case the record that satisfies completely the designated retrieving conditions is not obtained. As a result, the second retrieving job is not required together with improvement of the retrieving operability and the retrieving process efficiency.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Summary] Regarding computer processing for searching data from a database, a data search processing method that facilitates specification of search conditions when searching for data using multiple search conditions. In a computer that performs processing for searching data from a database, the computer receives multiple search conditions and searches the database for data satisfying a predetermined number or more of the search conditions determined in a predetermined order for the specified search conditions. , and among the extracted data, the data that satisfies the largest number of search conditions is processed as data corresponding to the designation.

[Industrial application field]

The present invention relates to processing for searching data from a database in a computer, and particularly to a search processing method when multiple search conditions are specified.

[Conventional technology]

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an example of the configuration of a computer. The processing device 1 is connected to an external storage device 3 that stores a database 2 consisting of a large amount of data, and a data search processing unit 4 executed by the processing device 1 receives a search request input from, for example, a terminal device 5. data that satisfies the search conditions specified in the request is retrieved from the database 2, and processes such as notifying the terminal device 5 of the number of corresponding data or outputting the data are performed.

When searching for data from a database in this way, for example, using the search condition as including a required key word,
It is often necessary to specify multiple key terms and search for data containing all of them.

In this case, as illustrated in the processing flowchart of FIG. 11, the unit data to be searched (
It is checked whether there are records (hereinafter referred to as records), and if there are any, the process proceeds to processing step 12 to read out unprocessed record codes.

In processing step 13, one of the search conditions is taken up, and the record is scanned to determine whether the record satisfies the search condition, that is, whether it contains a certain word, for example;
If the conditions are not satisfied, the process immediately returns to step 11, and if there are any records remaining, processing of the next record begins.

If one condition is satisfied, it is checked in processing step 14 whether all search conditions have been satisfied, and if there is an unprocessed search condition, the process returns to processing step 13 to test another search condition.

When it is identified in processing step 14 that all search conditions are satisfied in this way, the record at that time is stored in processing step 15 so as to be added to one of the search results,
Return to processing step 11.

When all records in the database 2 have been processed, processing branches from processing step 11 to processing step 16, and outputs a count of the number of records or outputs records stored as search results, that is, records that satisfy all of multiple search conditions. etc. However, of course - in boat fishing, there may be cases where there are no records that satisfy all of the specified search conditions.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

Even when specifying multiple search conditions as described above, if there is data that satisfies all of them, you want to retrieve that data, but if there is no such data, only some of those search conditions can be retrieved. In many cases, it is better to obtain data that satisfies the above criteria.

However, in that case, for example, if you find out that there are no matching records as a result of the above search process, you may enter a search request with relaxed search conditions, such as deleting some of the search conditions one by one, and re-execute the search. Or, conversely, starting with relaxed search conditions and increasing the search conditions sequentially, etc. In either case, it is necessary for a person to adjust the search conditions and repeat the search, which is a problem in terms of operability and processing efficiency. .

An object of the present invention is to provide a data search processing method that solves the problems described above and improves the operability of search conditions when searching for data using a plurality of search conditions.

[Means to solve the problem]

FIG. 1 is a process flowchart showing the configuration of the present invention.

The figure shows the flow of database search processing in the data search processing section of the computer, and 19 to 34 are processing steps.

[For production]

In the process of searching data from a database, when the data search processing unit receives designations of multiple search conditions in process step 19 in FIG. , records satisfying a predetermined number or more of search conditions determined in a predetermined order are extracted.

In processing steps 30 to 33, the record that satisfies the largest number of search conditions among the records is left as the search result, and as a result of processing all the records as described above, the records that remain as the search results are processed as records that meet the specifications. The search results are processed in step 34.

With the above processing method, if there are no records that satisfy all of the specified search conditions, records that satisfy some of them will automatically be obtained as search results, so adjust the search conditions and re-run the search. There is no need to do so.

〔Example〕

According to the present invention, the data search processing unit 4 in FIG. 2 executes the search process as shown in FIG. Then, in processing step 20, control values are initialized.

As a control value necessary for implementing the present invention, for example, the number of search conditions satisfied by records stored as search results as described later (hereinafter, this value will be referred to as A)
, and the number of search conditions satisfied by the record being processed (hereinafter, this value will be referred to as C), and in processing step 20, A is set to 1.

In processing step 21, it is checked whether there are any records left to be processed. If there are, the processing proceeds to processing step 22 to read out the unprocessed code, and in processing step 23, C is set to O. .

In processing step 24, one of the search conditions is picked up, for example, in order of priority, and it is determined whether the record satisfies the search condition, and if the condition is satisfied, C is increased by +1 in processing step 25.
Then, in processing step 26, it is determined whether all search conditions have been processed, and if there are any unprocessed search conditions, the process returns to processing step 24.

If the search condition cannot be satisfied as a result of the process in process step 24, it is determined in process step 27 whether the condition is a required search condition, and if it is a necessary condition, the process for this record is immediately terminated and the process returns to process step 24. , move on to processing the next record.

If it is not an essential condition, it is determined whether a priority is given in processing step 28, and if there is a priority, the search condition test for this record is finished and the process proceeds to processing step 29, and if there is no priority, all Proceed to process step 26 above to continue testing the search conditions.

Through the above processing, records that do not satisfy even one of the required search conditions are unconditionally dropped from the search, and
If there is a priority, the search conditions are tested in order of priority, and if there is a search condition that is not satisfied, the test of the search condition is discontinued, but if you specify that there is no priority, all the specified search conditions will be tested. The number of conditions that are satisfied during that time is counted.

For this purpose, for example, when inputting search conditions, for example, the priority is set in the order of input, and the number of search conditions specified as mandatory is set as mandatory search conditions in order of priority, or the handling without priority is specified. It is also possible to do so. However, depending on the system, these specifications may not be recognized and they may be handled uniformly, and in that case, the processing steps 27, 28, etc. can naturally be omitted according to fixed conditions.

When the end of the search condition test is identified in processing step 26 or 28, the process proceeds to processing step 29, where the values of C and A are compared, and if C<A, the record is not needed, so
Processing step 2 for processing the next record.
Return to 4.

If C<A, it is further determined in processing step 30 whether C>A, and if C>A, in processing step 31 the records stored as search results up to that point (i.e., the number of satisfied search conditions (1 or more records less than the current record) are discarded, and in processing step 32, the value of C is set in A,
The record currently processed in processing step 33 is stored in the search results as the record for which the number of search conditions satisfied is the largest in the processing up to that point, and the process returns to processing step 24.

Also, if it is determined in processing step 30 that C>A is not satisfied (
In other words, if C=A), the process immediately proceeds to processing step 33, where the currently processed record is added to the search results and stored.

When all the records in the database 2 have been processed in this way, processing branches from processing step 24 to processing step 34, where the code is stored as a search result and is output as a count of the number of records as a record corresponding to the search specification. Performs processing such as outputting records.

As an example of how the search function described above can be applied, for example, a person who is about to study abroad in California might ask for advice regarding a database related to employees, and search for information such as ``Under 30 years old'' ``Has studied abroad in the United States'' ``Working at Kawasaki factory ``Studying abroad'' Assume that the destination is California J, and a search is requested with four search conditions, with the second to last being required, and there is no employee record that satisfies all of them.

In this case, conventionally the response is simply that there is no record that satisfies the condition, but in the system of the present invention, for example, the following response can be output.

"There are no records that meet all the conditions.

There were 2 records that met up to 3 conditions.

830394 Shingo Sanno: Planning Department Planning Division 84104
3 Yoshiko Oishi: Accounting Department, Accounting Division” The questioner then requests, for example, the output of the biography column for employee number 830394, and writes, for example, “Biography 77-4 to 82-9 New York. You can get a bio such as "studying abroad at university".

Therefore, the person asking the question not only knows that there is no one who matches his/her study abroad destination, but also can find out who has the same experience of studying abroad in the United States and who may be able to provide some kind of advice by searching - times.

In addition, as another application example, in order to estimate the attributes of unregistered words in the processing of words that are not registered in the word dictionary in machine translation,
A database consisting of records with contents as illustrated in FIG. 4, whose elements are attributes of unregistered words, is created in advance.

In the database shown in Figure 4, when an unregistered word is found during sentence analysis, the database is searched using the "previous word" and "following word" columns using the attributes of the registered words before and after it as search keys. Then, the ``attribute estimated for word'' column of the most appropriate record is used as the attribute of the unregistered word.

In this case, even if there is no record that perfectly matches the search key, it is desired that the record with the highest degree of matching be searched, and by applying the search function of the present invention, this requirement can be satisfied. can.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As is clear from the above description, according to the present invention, in the processing of a computer that searches data from a database, data is searched using multiple search conditions, and if there is no record that satisfies all the conditions, automatically Since records that satisfy a portion of the search results are obtained as search results, there is a significant industrial effect of improving search operability and search processing efficiency.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is a flowchart of processing showing the configuration of the present invention, Fig. 2 is a block diagram showing an example of the configuration of a computer, Fig. 3 is a flowchart of conventional processing, and Fig. 4 is an explanatory diagram of the unregistered word attribute database. be. In the figure, 1 is a processing device, 2 is a database, 3 is an external storage device, 4 is a data search processing unit, 5 is a terminal device, 9 to 1%, 19 to 34 are processing steps A process flow diagram showing the configuration of the present invention Block diagram showing an example of computer configuration Figure 2 Flowchart of conventional processing

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] A computer that performs a process of searching data from a database receives designation of a plurality of search conditions (19), and satisfies a predetermined number or more of the specified search conditions determined in a predetermined order. (20-28), and among the extracted data, the data that satisfies the search conditions with the largest number is processed as data that corresponds to the designation (29-34). Characteristic data search processing method.