JPH04328678A - Table data displaying system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To quickly and efficiently perform comparing and referring to the information described at a table by defining the hierarchical structure of a table shown by a tree structure for a row and a column and controlling the displaying ON/OFF of the row and column in accordance with the hierarchical structure. CONSTITUTION:A control part 11 is equipped with a hierarchy defining means 13, a paragraph opening means 14 and a paragraph closing means 15, respective means are divided into means 13a-15a of a row and means 13b-15b of a column and at the time of performing means 13-15, both means of a row and a column are started. The hierarchy defining means 13a of the row defines hierarchy data 17a to combine plural rows of the table data by the hierarchy. A row closing means 15a sets the mask attribute to the row by using the hierarchy data 17a. A row opening means 14a releases the mask attribute set by the row closing means 15a. The hierarchy defining means 13b of the column, a column opening means 14b and a column closing means 15b performs the same processing as the said means of the row for the column.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

0001

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method for displaying tabular data read into a data processing device.

0002

2. Description of the Related Art In data processing devices such as personal computers and word processors, data written in the form of tables is widely used in various planning fields such as business plans and simulations. Table rows and columns are usually numbered for identification. FIG. 10 is an example of a table read into such a data processing device. In this example, each square in the table is called a cell and is described using row (R) and column (C) numbers. For example, cell 101 is written as R2C3.

Now, when a table is read, in order to judge the validity of the data or to check the tendency of the data, only some items in the table may be focused on and compared and referenced. For example, in the table of FIG. 11(a), this is the case when focusing on products such as refrigerators and washing machines, and checking the sales percentage of each product, or comparing sales between manufacturers. For this purpose, conventional tabular data display systems provide a "mask function" that temporarily hides specified rows and columns.

The operation of the mask function is shown in FIG. 11(a) below.
, FIG. 12(a), and FIG. 13(a). FIG. 11(a) is an example of a sales plan table for each product. If you want to compare and refer to items for each product, such as refrigerators and washing machines, in this table, it is difficult to do so because there are items for each manufacturer in between. Therefore, the mask function described above is used. For example, if you want to compare items by product in FIG. 11(a), you will not need items by manufacturer. Therefore, after specifying a range of unnecessary item lines as in operations 114a to 114d, mask processing is executed to hide these item lines from the screen. This result is shown in Figure 12(a).
It is shown in Furthermore, if you want to compare items by product category in FIG. 12(a), perform operations 121a to
121b is specified, and the masking process is executed again. The results are shown in Figure 13(a). Furthermore, if it is desired to restore a hidden item line, a process for redisplaying it is executed.

[0005]

[Problem to be Solved by the Invention] In this way, in the conventional table data display method, if you want to display a table by switching the items to be compared and referenced, you need to specify the range of rows and columns as described above. After that, you need to perform the mask function. However, when switching the display format frequently, it is necessary to repeat this mask operation many times, which poses a problem that the operation becomes complicated. This problem is especially noticeable when the size of the table is large. The present invention aims to improve this problem and to enable efficient comparison and reference of information written in a table.

[0006]

[Means for Solving the Problems] A data processing device equipped with a first tabular data display method of the present invention has (a) a hierarchy definition means for defining row hierarchies and column hierarchies of a table based on a tree structure; and (b) clause closing means for hiding the hierarchy below the row and column specified according to the hierarchical structure of (b) above, and (c) the row and column specified according to the hierarchical structure of (b) above. The present invention is characterized in that it has a node opening means for redisplaying the lower hierarchy of the column.

[0007] Furthermore, a data processing device equipped with the second tabular data display method of the present invention includes (a) a hierarchy definition means for defining the hierarchy of table rows based on a tree structure, and (b) the above (a). clause closing means that hides the hierarchy below the specified line according to the hierarchical structure of (c) clause opening that makes the hierarchy below the specified line undisplayed according to the hierarchical structure of (b). It is characterized by having a means.

Furthermore, the data processing device equipped with the third tabular data display method of the present invention includes (a) a hierarchy definition means for defining the hierarchy of table columns based on a tree structure;
clause closing means that hides the hierarchy below the specified column according to the hierarchical structure in (a); and (c) redisplays the hierarchy below the specified column according to the hierarchical structure in (a). It is characterized in that it has a node opening means for opening the node.

That is, in the first tabular data display method of the present invention, the hierarchy definition means, clause opening means, and clause closing means are each divided into row means and column means. The row hierarchy definition means connects a plurality of rows of table data with directed links, and defines a row-related hierarchical structure (tree structure). FIG. 15 shows a conceptual diagram of an example of this tree structure. Here, the node 151 is called a root. Furthermore, when an arbitrary node is selected, among the nodes adjacent to the selected node, the one closer to the root is called the parent (node), and the other nodes are called the children (nodes). For example, node 153
The parent of a is node 152a, and the children of node 152a are node 153a and node 153b. Descendants of a node are the descendants of a subtree (other than the root) in a subtree with that node as the root.
Say node. For example, descendants of node 152a are nodes 153a, 153b, 154a, and 154b.

On the other hand, the row closing means hides descendant rows of the specified row from the screen based on the tree structure. Further, the row opening means redisplays descendant rows of the specified row on the screen. Further, the column hierarchy definition means, column opening means, and column closing means perform processing when the means related to rows are applied to columns.

Further, in the second table data display method of the present invention, only the row means of the first table data display method is used. Further, in the third tabular data display method of the present invention, only the column means of the first tabular data display method are used.

0012

Embodiments Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a data processing apparatus equipped with a first tabular data display method according to the present invention, and FIGS. 2 to 8 are processing flowcharts of the tabular data display method.

In FIG. 1, a control section 11, a memory 17,
and components 18a-18d are connected by bus 18. The memory 17 is made up of a RAM and includes a table data storage section 17c that holds the table data itself, and hierarchical data storage sections 17a to 17b that hold the hierarchical structure defined for the table data. Table data storage section 17c
data is read from the disk drive 18c. Furthermore, the data in the hierarchical storage units 17a to 17b is stored in the keyboard 1.
It is set based on the hierarchical structure definition information input from 8b. The control unit 11 is composed of a program stored in ROM or RAM, and has a hierarchy definition means 1 which is a feature of the present invention.
3. A knot opening means 14 and a knot closing means 15 are provided. The means 13-15 further include row means 13a, 14a, 15a and column means 13b, 14b, 1, respectively.
5b, and when means 13 to 15 are executed, both row and column means are activated. The row hierarchy definition means 13a defines hierarchical data 17a for connecting a plurality of rows of table data by a hierarchy. The row closing means 15a sets a mask attribute to a row using this hierarchical data 17a. The row opening means 14a cancels the mask attribute set by the row closing means 15a. Further, the column hierarchy definition means 13b, column opening means 14b, and column closing means 15b perform the same processing on columns as the means for rows. Furthermore, the display means 16 displays only rows and columns for which mask attributes are not set on the CRT display 18d.

Each of the above means is activated by the hierarchical data control unit 12 at appropriate times based on control information input from the keyboard 18b. Note that the open/close means 14 to 15 change the display format of the table data, but do not change the table data itself stored in the table data storage section 17c.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing the overall processing procedure. In step 21, the user
Load a table like the one shown. Next, in step 22a, the user is requested to specify a command to be executed. Step 22b checks the designated command, and if it is an end command, ends the process of FIG. If not, the process starting from step 22c is activated. Steps 22c to 22e start the command processing from steps 23a, 24a, and 25a, respectively, when the specified command is one of hierarchy definition, open, and close. If not, the process moves to step 27 and the corresponding command processing is performed. When these command processes are completed, the processes from step 22a are repeated.

Steps 23a to 23b are the hierarchy definition step 1.
3 is used to define the hierarchical structure of the table in terms of rows and columns. FIG. 9 shows the contents of the hierarchical data storage section 16a when the hierarchical structure regarding rows is defined in the table of FIG. 11(a).

When representing the hierarchy as a data structure in this way, the tree structure shown on the left side of FIG. 9 is used. One node of this tree structure corresponds to one row of the table, and each row holds row information shown on the right side of FIG. This row information is managed by a one-dimensional array that stores its addresses. For example, the row information for row R5 is 5 in the array.
It can be obtained by referring to the memory area pointed to by the th address.

In the row information 91, number 93 represents the parent row number in the tree structure, and number 94 represents the child row number. For example, if we pay attention to the row information of row R5 in FIG. 9, row R9
is the parent of row R5, so "9", which is the parent row number, is stored in the number 93 of R5. Also, rows R3 and R4 are R5
Because it is a child of
"4" is stored. Further, "-" indicates that the corresponding line number does not exist. The tree structure is thus described by a data structure that stores the parent and child row numbers of each row. In addition, the display attribute 92 controls display on/off of the row,
Set when opening/closing a row. Although FIG. 9 shows only the data structure of rows, a similar data structure (column information) is also constructed for columns.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart of the row hierarchy definition process 23a. This process corresponds to the row hierarchy definition means 13a. There are various methods for defining a tree structure, but here we will show a procedure for defining a parent-child structure, which is its constituent unit, in a top-down manner from the highest level to the lowest level. Step 31 asks the user whether to define a hierarchy of rows. If no is selected here, the process of FIG. 3 is directly terminated. This corresponds to the case where only the column hierarchy is defined. If yes is selected, the top row of the tree (
The user is requested to specify root) Rp in one line, and further, in step 33, the process shown in FIG. 4 is activated.

In FIG. 4, step 41 asks the user whether there are any child row candidates. If no is specified here, the process in FIG. 4 is ended and the process returns to the starting process. If yes is specified, one or more lines of child Rc of Rp are specified in step 42.
request the user to do so. Steps 43a to 43c perform repetitive control to execute steps 44a to 44e for all specified Rc. Step 44a is Rp
and one of Rc are connected by a directed link. That is,
Set the line number of Rp to number 93 of Rc, and set the line number of Rp to number 9 of Rp.
The row number of Rc is stored in one of 4, 95, . . . Steps 44b to 44e restart the process of FIG. 4 by regarding one of Rc as Rp. In this way, the processing in FIG. 4 is nested within it, and the parent-child structure is defined in a top-down manner based on this nesting. Note that the column hierarchy definition process 23b also defines a column tree structure using the same procedure as the row process.

Now, once the hierarchical structure of the table is defined, the table is opened/closed in steps 24a-24b and steps 25a-25b. In this embodiment, four processes are prepared: row open, column open, row close, and column close. Closing a row here refers to the process of hiding descendant rows of a specified row from the screen. Furthermore, opening a line refers to a process of redisplaying a line hidden by the above-mentioned closing process on the screen. Opening and closing columns is the same as row processing. In addition,
Each open/close process only sets/cancels data, and the actual screen display is performed by the screen display routine 26 in Figure 2.
is performed by referring to the above internal data.

The data that controls opening/closing of the above line is the display attribute 92 shown in FIG. Display attribute 92
is composed of a display control bit 92b and an opening/closing control bit 92a. These bits are 0 (open/display on) in the initial state. Display control bit 92 holds the display on/off state of the current row. That is, 0 indicates that the row is displayed, and 1 indicates that it is not displayed. The open/close control bit 92a indicates the open/closed state of the current row, ie, the display on/off state of descendant rows. Therefore, when a certain row is in a closed state, all descendants of that row are in a display-off state.

By the way, in order to erase the descendants of a specified line from the screen, the close process sets the opening/closing control bit of the specified line to 1 (closed), and also sets the display control bits of all descendants of that line to 1. (Turn off. The close process will be explained in detail below using the flowchart of FIG. FIG. 5 is a flowchart of the row closing process 25a. This process corresponds to the row closing means 15a. Step 51a requests the user to specify one or more lines Rp to be closed. By omitting the specification of Rp here, the row closing process in FIG. 5 can be completed. If Rp is designated, the processes from step 52a onwards are activated. Steps 52a-52
c performs repetitive control to execute steps 53a to 53b for all Rp. Step 53a sets the opening/closing control bit 92a in FIG. 9 to the closed state for one Rp. Step 53b also sets the display control bits 92b of all descendants of Rp to the display off state.

As described above, the process in FIG. 5 only sets the display attributes of the rows, and the screen redisplay process 26 performs the actual display. For example, if the row close command in FIG. 11(a) is executed and rows 111a to 111d are specified as Rp, the table shown in FIG. 12(a) will be obtained. 11 and 12 show the state of the display attribute 92 at this time, and the underlined parts in FIG. 12 show the changes before and after closing. In this case, step 53a is row 1
11a to 111d are set to the closed state, and step 5
3b sets the descendants of those rows to the display-off state. However, the display attributes of rows 111a to 111d remain in the display-on state. Thus, closing a row affects the display state of the row's descendants, but not the display state of the row itself.

FIG. 13(b) shows the result when the row close command is executed in the same manner as described above in FIG. 12 and rows 112a to 112b are specified as Rp. In this case as well, the descendants of rows 112a-112b will be in a display-off state, but
The lines themselves remain visible.

[0026] Here, the open process is to restore the row to the state before the close process was performed. In other words, only the lines that were deleted from the screen by the previous close process are displayed. Therefore, the open process sets the opening/closing control bit of the designated row to 0 (open) and also sets the display control bits of its descendants to 0 (on). However, if there are closed rows in descendants, (
(to revert to the previous state) Leaves the visibility state of descendants of that closed row off.

The open process will be explained in detail below using the flowchart of FIG. FIG. 6 is a flowchart of the row open processing 24a. This process is performed by the row opening means 14.
Corresponds to a. Step 61a is the row R to be opened.
Request the user to specify p in one or more lines. By omitting the specification of Rp here, the row opening process in FIG. 6 can be completed. If Rp is designated, the processing from step 62a onwards is activated. Steps 62a to 62c are performed in step 6 for all Rp.
Iterative control for executing steps 3a to 63b is performed. Step 63a is performed for one Rp in FIG.
2a is set to open state. Further, step 63b starts the process of FIG. 7 to set the display state of the descendants of Rp.

In FIG. 7, steps 71 and 72 are Rp
Check the line information 91 in Figure 9 for Rp, and if Rp is a leaf (no descendants) or in a closed state, then
Ends the process and returns to the starting process. If not, the process starting from step 73a is activated. Step 73
Steps a to 73c perform iterative control to execute steps 74a to 74e for all children Rc of Rp. Step 74a sets the display control bit 92b in FIG. 9 to the display on state for one Rc. Step 74b
~74e regards one of Rc as Rp and restarts the process in FIG.

In this way, the processing in FIG. 7 is nested within it, and based on this nesting, the descendants of Rp in FIG. 6 are sequentially set to the display-on state. However, as shown in step 72, when a closed row is detected, no further nesting is performed, so if the descendants of Rp are descendants of rows that were closed at the same time, their display state will not change. The processes in FIGS. 6 and 7 also only require display attributes to be set, and the actual display is performed by the screen redisplay process 26. For example, in Figure 13(a), execute the line open command and select line 1.
If 12a to 112b are designated as Rp, Fig. 12 (
Return to the table in a). In this case, step 63a is
2a to 112b are set to open state, and step 63
b sets rows 111a to 111d to be displayed on. However, since rows 111a to 111d are closed, their descendants remain in a display-off state. In this way, opening a row does not affect the visibility of descendants of closed rows. This is to reproduce the display state before the row is closed. To return Figure 12(a) to the state shown in Figure 11(a), execute the line open command again and open line 111a.
~111d is designated as Rp.

On the other hand, the column open process 24b and the column close process 25b change the display attributes of columns using the same procedure as the process for rows. For example, if you execute the column close command in Figure 13(a) and specify columns 131a to 131b, Figure 1
4 tables are obtained. In addition, if you execute the column open command in Figure 14 and specify columns 141a to 141b, Figure 13 (a)
) Return to the table.

When the open/close processing is completed, the processing results are displayed on the screen in step 26. FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing the processing procedure for screen display. This process corresponds to the display means 16, and displays on the screen cells whose rows and columns are both in a display-on state. Step 81a sets the data display position to the upper left corner of the screen, and sets the line number at the upper corner of the screen to parameter i. Step 81b checks the display control bit 92b of row i, and if the display is on, starts the processes from step 82a onwards. Otherwise, the process moves to step 81e, updates the row number i, and repeats the process from step 81b for the new i.
Step 82a sets the display position to the left end of the screen while maintaining the row position, and sets the column number at the left end of the screen to parameter j. Step 82b checks the display control bit 92b in column j, and if the display is on, starts the processing from step 82c onwards. If not, step 82g
, the column number j is updated, and the process from step 82b is repeated for the new j. Steps 82c-82d
checks the display width necessary to display column j, and if the right margin on the screen satisfies that width, starts the processing from step 82e onwards. If not, step 81c
to move to. Step 82e displays the data in the memory of the cells pointed to by i and j at the display position. Step 82f advances the display position to the next column on the screen. Step 82g updates column number j and repeats the process from step 82b. Step 81c checks whether the display position is at the bottom edge of the screen, and if so, it is assumed that the screen display is completed and the process of FIG. 8 is ended. If not, the display position is advanced to the next line in step 81d, the line number i is updated in step 81e, and the process from step 81b is repeated.

As described above, by using the first tabular data display method of the present invention, display on/off of rows and columns can be controlled according to the hierarchical structure defined in the table, so that the information written in the table This has the effect of allowing quick and efficient comparative reference. Although this embodiment shows an example in which a tree structure is defined for the entire table, the same processing results can be obtained even when the tree structure is defined only for a part of the table.

In the second tabular data display method according to the present invention, the means 13b, 14b, 15b and the storage section 17b in FIG. 1, the step 22b in FIG. 2, and the steps 31b, 32b, 33b in FIG. Omitted. That is, only table switching regarding rows is performed.

Furthermore, in the third tabular data display method according to the present invention, the means 13a, 14a, 15 of FIG.
a, the storage section 17a, step 22a in FIG. 2, and steps 31a, 32a, and 33a in FIG. 3 are omitted. That is, only table switching regarding rows is performed.

[0035]

As explained above, in the tabular data display method of the present invention, a hierarchical structure of the table represented by a tree structure is defined for each row and column, and the display of rows and columns is turned on or off according to the hierarchical structure. By introducing a mechanism for controlling /off, there is an effect that the information described in the table can be compared and referenced quickly and efficiently.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a data processing device equipped with a first tabular data display method according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing the overall process procedure.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing row hierarchy definition processing.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing parent-child row definition processing.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing row closing processing.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing row open processing.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing descendant open processing.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing screen redisplay processing.

FIG. 9 is an explanatory diagram showing a data structure on memory.

FIG. 10 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of a table on the data processing device.

FIG. 11 is a diagram of a screen display example showing a product-specific sales plan table as an example.

FIG. 12 is a diagram illustrating an example of a screen display showing an example of a sales plan table for each product after mask processing.

FIG. 13 is a diagram illustrating a screen display example of a product-specific sales plan table after mask processing is performed again.

FIG. 14 is a diagram illustrating an example of a screen display when a column close command is executed, taking as an example a sales plan table by product after masking has been performed again.

FIG. 15 is a conceptual diagram of a tree structure.

[Explanation of symbols]

11 Control section 12 Hierarchical data control unit 13 Hierarchy definition means 13a Row hierarchy definition means 13b Column hierarchy definition means 14 Section opening means 14a Row opening means 14b Column opening means 15 Section closing means 15a Row closing means 15b Column closing means 16 Display means 17 Memory 17a Row hierarchical data storage section 17b Column hierarchical data storage unit 17c Table data storage unit 18 Bus 18a CPU 18b Keyboard 18c disk drive 18d CRT display 91 Row information 92 Row display attributes 92a Open/close control bit 92b Display control bit 93 Pointer to parent row information 94 Pointer to child row information

Claims (3)

[Claims] Claim 1: A data processing device that displays table data, comprising: (a) a hierarchy definition means for defining row hierarchies and column hierarchies of a table based on a tree structure;
(b) Section closing means for hiding the hierarchy below the row and column specified according to the hierarchical structure in (a), and (c) the section closing means for hiding the hierarchy below the row and column specified according to the hierarchical structure in (a) A table display method, characterized in that display/non-display of rows and columns of the table is controlled by comprising: node opening means for redisplaying the hierarchy of the table. 2. A data processing device that displays table data, comprising: (a) a hierarchy definition means for defining a hierarchy of table rows based on a tree structure; (c) clause opening means for re-displaying the lower hierarchy of the designated line according to the hierarchical structure of (b) above; A table display method characterized by controlling display/non-display of rows of a table. 3. A data processing device that displays table data, comprising: (a) a hierarchy definition means for defining a hierarchy of table columns based on a tree structure; (c) clause opening means for redisplaying the lower hierarchy of the designated column according to the hierarchical structure of (b) above; A table display method characterized by controlling display/non-display of table columns.