JPH0236988B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to an electronic search device, and more particularly to an electronic search device for searching word information, such as English, stored in a memory.

Conventionally, such electronic search devices have been used, for example, in electronic translators. In that case, when searching for the full spelling of word information (for example, an English word) stored in the internal memory, enter the entire spelling or specify the first multiple constituent characters (short spelling) including the first part and use the search key. A predetermined word was searched by operation. However, when searching from such short spellings that include the first part, it is impossible to search from arbitrary letters or last letters that make up an English word. In other words, ST□D□→STUDY when learning suffixes (ter, tion, list, ics, ment, etc.) and solving crossword pulses, etc.
It was impossible to search for information, making effective language learning and information retrieval difficult.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an electronic search device capable of eliminating the above-mentioned conventional drawbacks and searching for a word using arbitrary characters constituting the word.

According to the present invention, in order to achieve this purpose, means for specifying the characters constituting a word and the arrangement position of the characters in the word is provided, and words having the specified character in the specified arrangement position are sequentially selected. Such a configuration is adopted.

An embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

In FIG. 1, the configuration of the input section, control section, and display section of the search device according to the present invention is illustrated as a block. Consists of. Alphabet key 4 is a key for inputting the spelling of an English word, and array position key 2 is composed of 10 types of numerical keys from 0 to 9, and is used to enter the characters input from the alphabet key. This key indicates the number of characters from the beginning of the word. These keys 4 and 2 are respectively connected to a character buffer 5 for temporarily storing characters and a numeric buffer 6 for temporarily storing numbers. Numbers are stored in a character buffer 5 and a number buffer 6, respectively.

On the other hand, the clear key 3 has the function of clearing all the contents of these buffers 5 and 6. Also, based on the information input from the arbitrary search keys 2 and 4, the control unit 7
This key is used to give the command to start searching. An address counter 8 is connected to the control unit 7, and the address counter 8 sequentially accesses addresses in the memory 9 under the control of the control unit 7, and transfers the data stored at the addresses to the control unit 7 and the address counter 8. It is sent to the display device 10. The display device 10 is composed of, for example, an LED (light emitting diode) or an LCD (liquid crystal).

On the other hand, the memory 9 is a fixed storage device (ROM) that stores information regarding English language and control codes.
As shown in more detail in the figure, ROM1 for the stored alphabets and the alphabets corresponding to this address are stored.
It consists of a ROM 3 and a ROM 2 in which a control code indicating the number of characters from the first character of the alphabet is stored. In other words, "ABLE" is stored at addresses 27 to 30 in FIG.
4 control code is attached. Further, "ABOUT" is stored at addresses 31 to 35, and each alpha bet is assigned a control code of 1 to 5.

Next, the operation of the search device configured as described above will be explained. Now, after clearing buffers 5 and 6 with clear key 3, keys 2 and 4 are used to alternately store array positions and their corresponding alpha bets in buffers 6 and 5, respectively. For example, the first and third letters are unknown, and the second and fourth letters are "B".
It is assumed that a known word "E" is to be searched.
At this time, the key operation is to first press the array position key "2" and the alphanumeric key 4 "B", then press the "4" and "E" keys as shown in Figure 3. Press . When the arbitrary search key 1 is pressed at this time (corresponding to the key operation shown in FIG. 3), the control section 7 detects this and takes out a set of information regarding the array position and alphanumeric characters from the buffers 5 and 6. The control unit 7 first increments the address counter 8 by +1 and sequentially specifies the addresses in ROM 1 until the information regarding the array position (in this case, "2") matches the information written in ROM 2. During the search, the display 10 is cleared by a signal from the control unit 7). The control unit 7 displays the numerical value from the buffer 6 indicating the array position and the ROM 2.
When it is detected that the numerical values of the control codes stored in the address counter 8 match, the count value of the address counter 8 at that time is held and
The alpha bet of ROM3 and the alpha bet from character buffer 5 are compared. If the two do not match, further add address counter 8.
The numbers are sequentially incremented by 1, and this continues until they match. In other words, in the above-described embodiment, the address reaches address 28 in FIG.

Next, the alphabet of the character buffer 5 and the alphabet of the ROM 3 are compared again, and when the control section 7 detects that the two match, the content of the address counter 8 at that time (that is, address 30) is temporarily held, and the Search for the word "ABLE".
Subsequently, each time the arbitrary search key 1 is pressed, the search for other words having "B" and "E" in the second and fourth positions is continued in the same steps.

In addition, as shown in the key operation ~ in Figure 3, if you want to search for a word that has the fifth known alphabet of "E", press "5", "E",
Next, each time you press arbitrary search key 1, "ACHIEVE",
The words "ANCIENT", "ASLEEP", and "BASKET" are searched and displayed on the display 10.

In this way, the control unit 7 sequentially compares the contents of the ROB 2 and the buffer 6, as well as the ROM 3 and the buffer 5, and operates the contents of the address counter 8 to move the character from the position of an arbitrary character of an English word to that position. You can search for words containing . In this case, the character position may be specified in plural or singular.

Further, although the above embodiments have been described with respect to English words, it goes without saying that the same can be said of other European and American languages, or words consisting of Japanese kana and kanji.

As explained above, according to the present invention, the characters constituting a word and the arrangement position of the characters in the word are specified, and the corresponding word is searched. It becomes possible to search for words in crossword puzzles, etc., and has excellent effects on language learning and practical information retrieval.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing the contents of the memory in FIG. 1, and FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of word search by key operation. It is. 1...Arbitrary search key, 2...Arrangement position key, 3...Clear key, 4...Alphabet key, 5...Character buffer, 6...Numeric buffer, 7...Control unit,
8...Address counter, 9...Memory, 10...Display device.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. In an electronic search device that searches word information stored in a memory, means for specifying the characters constituting a word and the arrangement position of the characters in the word, and a means for specifying a word having a specified character at the specified arrangement position. a means for sequentially selecting, and a word search is performed from characters fewer than the number of characters constituting the word by comparing the characters arranged at the designated position and fewer than the number of characters of the word with the characters of the word information stored in the memory; What is claimed is: 1. An electronic search device comprising means for sequentially searching for word information having a specified character in a specified arrangement position.