JPH02267671A - Retrieval display device for table format database - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To easily recognize a retrieval result entirely and to quickly recognize the summary of the retrieval result by setting a field of abbreviated display, and displaying a large number of fields in a window with limited width. CONSTITUTION:A display setting part 3 is provided with functions to decide whether or not abbreviated display is performed at every field and to set the way of the abbreviated display(the number of display characters when abbreviation is performed, etc.) when the abbreviation is performed. A display length control part 41 controls a display part 5 so as to perform the abbreviated display of the data of the retrieval result of the field on which the abbreviated display is set at a display setting part 3 with the way of abbreviated display being set. Also, an entire display control part 42 processes retrieval data so as to display the whole of the retrieval data designated by a pointing device at an arbitrary position on a display screen when an instruction to perform entire display by the pointing device, and outputs the data to the display part 5. Thereby, the entire recognition of the retrieval result easily is performed, and the retrieval result quickly is recognized.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (Field of Industrial Application) The present invention relates to a method for displaying search results of a tabular database on a display device such as a CRT.

(Prior art) Tabular database (relational database)
When there are a large number of fields in a search, it becomes difficult to display all the search result information in the display window when displaying the search results. Conventionally, in such cases, the could only display part of the table (the upper left part in the figure). Therefore, if you wanted to see all the data, you had to use the scroll bar to scroll the table.

With this conventional display method, when you want to compare and examine multiple fields that cannot be displayed simultaneously in a window, you have to scroll and compare them frequently, which makes the operation complicated and makes it difficult to read and understand. It was difficult to understand the overall content. Moreover, the operation required a lot of time.

Furthermore, databases that contain data such as audio, video, and images cannot be displayed or take a long time to display.

(Problems to be Solved by the Invention) The present invention aims to display the search results of a tabular database by displaying the entire search result in a window with a limited width. It is an object of the present invention to provide a search display device that allows users to easily understand search results and quickly view search results.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a search and display device that can handle multimedia data such as audio and video.

(Means for Solving the Problems) As shown in FIG. 1, the present invention comprises an input section 1 having a pointing device such as a mouse, a search section 2 for searching a tabular database, and a display setting section 3. , display length control section 41
This is a tabular data search and display device comprising a display control section 4 including an entire display control section 42, and a display section 5. The display setting section 3 has a function of setting the format in which the search results of the search section 2 are displayed. The function includes the ability to select whether to display the entire search result data or abbreviated data for each field in the database, and to instruct how to abbreviate if abbreviated display is selected. . As a method of shortening, for example, there is a method of specifying the number of characters from the beginning of the character string of data.

The display length control unit 41 transmits the search result data of the field for which shortened display is set in the display setting unit 3 to the display setting unit 3.
The display section 5 is controlled so as to display the shortened image in the shortened manner set in .

The entire display control unit 42 is configured to display the entire search data specified by the pointing device in the abbreviated field at an arbitrary position on the display screen when an instruction to display the entire image is inputted by the pointing device. The search data is processed and output to the display section 5.

Furthermore, in the above-described tabular database search and display device, when the present invention is directed to a tabular database that handles audio as the data type of at least one field, the display length control unit 41 controls the audio field. The search result data is processed so that a display indicating that the field is an audio field is processed, and the overall display control unit 42 controls the audio field to be outputted by a separately provided audio reproducing device 6.

(Function) The display setting section 3 can set how each field is displayed. In particular, the present invention has a function of setting in advance whether or not to display abbreviations for each field, and if so, how to abbreviate (number of characters displayed when abbreviated, etc.). ). The abbreviated display control unit 41 of the display control unit 4 performs a process of extracting a display portion from the search result data of a field for which abbreviated display is set in the display setting unit 3 in accordance with the specified abbreviation method and passing it to the display unit.

By abbreviated display, more fields can be displayed on the display screen, making it easier to understand the entire background. It also speeds up the operation because less scrolling is required.

When you see the abbreviated display and need to see the entire abbreviated search section data, use the pointing device to indicate the relevant display location, and the entire display control unit 42 opens a pop-up tiny window. Controls the display of the entire specified search result data. Furthermore, in the case of audio data, the audio reproduction section 6 outputs the audio.

(Embodiment) FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an embodiment of the present invention, in which a display control having an input section 11 a search section 2, a display setting section 3, a display length control section 41, and an overall display control section 42 is shown. Part 4,
It consists of a display section 5.

The input unit 1 is used to input data and commands using a pointing device such as a mouse, a keyboard, or the like. The search unit 2 executes a search in a tabular database. The display setting section 3 is used to set the format in which search results are displayed. The display length control section 41 processes the search result data of the field for which abbreviated display is set in the display setting section 3 so as to display it in abbreviated form in the abbreviation method set in the display setting section 3, and displays the data in the display section 5. This is what is output to.

The entire display control unit 42 is configured to display the entire search data specified by the pointing device in the abbreviated field at an arbitrary position on the display screen when the pointing device inputs an instruction to display the entire image. The search data is processed and output to the display unit 5.

FIG. 5 shows an example of setting the search result display section.

Figure iB shows the flow of control at this time.

When you first create a database, you set the display area,
First, set the icon name (■), enter the number of fields (■), and enter the field name, data type, maximum data length, and whether or not it can be abbreviated and its length for each field (■～■) . The data type is set by selecting the type from text, numerical value, date, image, video, audio, etc. It is also possible to assume that the maximum data length is not input.

When setting the display method, select whether to display the entire data length of the field, only a part of it, or not display it at all. If only a portion is to be displayed, specify its length in characters.

When you first create a database as described above, you also set the display in the database definition, but you can change the display settings as you like.

When using the database, the search unit 3 searches the database. This search may be performed by remote database access or by accessing a database on the user's own machine.

The search results are held in an appropriate storage unit.

FIG. 7 shows the flow of control when displaying search results by the display length control section 41.

The name of each field is displayed in sequence with the number of characters according to the field length set in the display setting section 3 (the maximum data length set for full display, the set number of characters for shortened display). ]).

After displaying the field names, each search result data is displayed one after another. To do this, read one search result data or data of each field for the number of characters according to the field length set in the display setting section 3 (■)
, displayed on the display unit 5 (@). Note that the data in the field for which all display is specified in the display setting section 3 is
Show all. Data in fields for which abbreviated display is specified in the display setting section 3 displays the specified number of characters. Data in fields that are set not to be displayed in the display setting section 3 are not displayed.

Once one field has been displayed, the process moves on to displaying the next field (@), but at that time, by comparing the number of fields that have already been displayed with the number of fields set in the database, all fields can be displayed. Check whether the processing has finished (■). If the process has not been completed, the process returns to step (2) and processes the search result data in the next field.

If it has been completed, the process moves on to similar display processing for the next line of search result data (■), but at this time, it is checked whether all the display processing of the search result data has been completed (■). If it is not finished, check whether there is still space left in the window displaying the search results (O).
If there are any remaining windows, the process returns to step O and continues display processing. If there is no more search result data to be displayed or if there is no more area to display in the window, the process ends (@).

When the above results are displayed, a display as shown in FIG. 3 is obtained.

If you want to know the details of the data in the shortened field, point the mouse at the position of the corresponding shortened data, for example, the cursor position shown in Figure 3, and click the mouse button to view the entire field. Display control section 4
After controlling step 2, a pop-up tiny window opens as shown in Figure 4, and this field (in this case, address) is displayed.
All data will be displayed.

In the case of a database that also handles media such as audio and video, data fields such as audio and video can be output from the audio playback device 6 or video playback by using a pointing device and giving instructions on the display screen. It is possible to output the data from the device used for the purpose.

(Effects of the Invention) According to the present invention, when displaying search results of a tabular database, many fields can be displayed within a limited window by setting fields for abbreviated display. This makes it easier to understand the overall search results and reduces the number of scrolling, allowing you to quickly see an overview of the search results.In addition, the shortened data can be displayed using a pointing device. Detailed information (overall data) can be displayed with simple operations without scrolling, so detailed information can be viewed quickly.

Furthermore, the present invention can also be applied to multimedia data such as audio and video.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a display example of search results of a conventional tabular database. FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of displaying the search results of the database according to the present invention. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a display example of search results in which a tiny window of full display according to the present invention is displayed. FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of setting the display portion of search results in the present invention. FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing an example of a procedure for setting the display portion of search results. FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing the operation of the display length control section when displaying search results. I... Input section, 2... Search section, 3... Display setting section, 4... Display control section, 41... Display length control section, 4
2... Overall display control unit, 5... Display unit, 6... Audio playback unit. Figure 1 Patent applicant: Fuji Xerox Co., Ltd.

Claims (2)

[Claims] (1) It has an input section with a pointing device such as a mouse, a search section for searching a tabular database, and a function for setting the format in which the search results of the search section are displayed. a display setting section that includes a function for selecting whether to display the entire search data or shortening it for a field, and instructing how to shorten the field when the shortened display is selected; and the display setting section. a display length control section for displaying search result data of a field set to be shortened in accordance with the shortening method set in the display setting section; and inputting an instruction for full display using the pointing device. a display control unit having an entire display control unit that displays the entire search data specified by the pointing device in the shortened and displayed field at an arbitrary position on the display screen when there is an output from the display control unit; 1. A search display device for a tabular database, comprising: a display section for displaying search results of a tabular database. (2) When searching a tabular database in which the data type of at least one field is audio, the display length control section displays the audio field for the audio field, and controls the overall display. 1. A search and display device for a tabular database, characterized in that the section processes the search result data so that the field of voice is outputted by a separately provided voice playback device.