JPH0535798A - Data base retrieving device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To automatically provide candidates of related data by using the degree of resemblance between the keyword given to noticed data and that given to arbitrary data to retrieve a data base. CONSTITUTION:In a data base system(DS) 10, one or more key-words or one entry are given to each data and are used to retrieve data. When retrieval of data related to certain data is indicated through an input means 13 at the time or display of display data in the DS 10, all of keywords given to display data are taken out from a storage means 15 of data or the like by a retrieving means 14. The storage means 15 of data or the like is retrieved by OR among them to take out candidates of related data. It is discriminated whether the entry of retrieved data is included in elements of keywords used for retrieval or not, and data whose entry is included in elements of keywords used for retrieval is preferentially displayed.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a search device for a database system in which arbitrary text is used as data, a plurality of keywords can be added to each data, and data can be searched by the keywords.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a conventional database system, a registrant establishes a logical link between data when registering the data in a database in order to search other data related to the data. Was there. However, when the amount of data becomes large, the link becomes complicated, the management thereof becomes difficult, and the link between the data also has to be stored, so that the storage capacity becomes large. Also,
In order to search for other data by following a link from one data, it was possible to follow only from the route set by the registrant. On the other hand, there is also a method of searching related data by keywords without using links between data,
In this case, when searching, the user must consider the keyword that is considered to be added to the related data and input it, which is a burden on the user.

On the other hand, the data in the database is conceptually classified and divided into a plurality of segments, and the keywords corresponding to each segment are registered in advance (these are referred to as a keyword group A), and a certain attention is paid. When searching the related data of the current data, the element of the keyword group A is searched from the data of interest (word string),
Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (Kokai) No. Sho 62-62, in which appropriate data is selected and displayed from among segments that are considered to have related data.
-27853.

[0004]

However, according to this method, it is necessary to register the data according to the concept classification set by the system designer, and the content of the data is not a general text but a few pieces of data. Since it is assumed that words (independent words) are separated by spaces etc., there is a problem that the user is greatly restricted when registering data. Furthermore, the system designer has previously set up the keyword group A.
Registering is essentially the same as creating a link between data, and the same problem as the method using the link occurs.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a database search device capable of automatically presenting candidates for related data by a database system without the trouble of data registration and search.

[0006]

In order to solve the above problems, in a database search apparatus according to the present invention, an input means such as a keyboard for inputting various data and a keyword for assigning a plurality of keywords to each data An assigning unit, a storing unit such as a disk device that stores a database having the data to which the keyword is attached, a display unit such as a CRT that displays various data,
When retrieving data related to the currently displayed data, an arithmetic means for obtaining a logical sum of all keywords included in the displayed data, and a search of the database based on the logical sum of the keywords Search means for performing, and when a plurality of data candidates are searched by the search means, determining whether the headings of the searched data are included in the elements of the keyword used for the search Means and display control means for displaying, when the heading is included in the elements of the keyword used for the search, the data in preference to other data not included.

[0007]

When a user gives an instruction to search for the related data of the display data while displaying certain data, all the keywords of the data added to the display data are retrieved from the storage means, and they are retrieved by the computing means. Is required. The search means searches the storage means by the logical sum to extract candidates for related data. The determining means determines whether or not the heading of the retrieved data is included in the elements of the plurality of keywords used in the retrieval. Here, the data included in the keyword element and the data not included in the keyword element are distinguished,
The display control means displays the included data with priority over other data. According to this, a candidate for related data is searched by using the similarity between the keyword given to the data of interest and the keyword given to arbitrary data, and the searched data is searched. Since the data is presented in consideration of the degree of mutual relevance, the user does not need to follow links or enter keywords in consideration of keywords. In addition, the data to be registered may be ordinary text and is not restricted by the registration.

[0008]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of a database search device according to the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an embodiment of the database search device according to the present invention. This database search device includes a CRT 1, a CRT control unit 2, a keyboard 3, a mouse 4, a keyboard / mouse control unit 5,
It is composed of a disk device 6, a disk device controller 7, a memory device 8, and a CPU 9.

The CRT control unit 2 is a control device of the CRT 1 which displays various data on the display, and displays and outputs each data of the database stored in the disk device 6 in addition to windows and icons.

The keyboard 3 is an input means for inputting various data such as character strings, numerical values and commands, and a mouse 4 is connected to the keyboard 3 as a pointing device. The mouse 4 is used to move a cursor displayed on the CRT 1 or click a displayed icon to input a predetermined instruction to the device. Various data and instructions input by the user from the keyboard 3 and the mouse 4 are sent to the memory device 8 and the CPU 9 through the keyboard / mouse control unit 5.

The disk device 6 is a storage means for storing a database having data to which a keyword is added, and the disk device controller 7 controls the input / output of data in the disk device 6. A plurality of databases are connected to the database search device via the disk device controller 7, and these databases form a database system described later.

The memory device 8 is a storage means for storing a program for controlling the database search device and temporarily storing various work data.

A CPU (Central Processing Unit) 9 is a circuit that controls the entire retrieval device and performs arithmetic processing on predetermined data based on various instructions. CPU9
A keyword assigning function for assigning a plurality of keywords to each data, and an operation for obtaining a logical sum of all the keywords included in the displayed data when searching for data related to the currently displayed data Function and a search function for searching the database based on the logical sum of the keywords, and when a plurality of candidates are searched by this search, the headings of the searched data are the keywords used for the search It has a determination function for determining whether or not it is included in the element of, and a display control function for preferentially displaying the data included in the element of the keyword used for the search in the headline, and a database search is performed. When doing this, the similarity between the keyword assigned to the data currently being focused on and the keyword assigned to any data is used. And, we are doing the process of presenting the candidate of the relevant data.

FIG. 1 shows a functional configuration of a database system 10 constructed by the database search device. In FIG. 1, the user interface 11 is composed of a display means 12 corresponding to the CRT 1 and the CRT control section 2 of FIG. 2 and an input means 13 corresponding to the keyboard 3, mouse 4 and keyboard / mouse control section 5. The search means 14 is composed of the search function of the CPU 9 and searches the database based on the logical sum of the keywords assigned to each data. The data storage unit 15 is a storage device that stores a plurality of databases having data to which keywords are added, and is configured by the disk device 6 of FIG.

In the database system 10, one or more keywords are added to each data, and the data can be searched by the keywords. Further, each data is provided with one heading, which is automatically registered as a keyword, so that it is possible to search by the heading. In this database system, when a user gives an instruction to search for related data of the display data through the input means 13 of the user interface 11 while displaying certain data, the search means 14 causes the display means to store the data or the like in the display means 15. All keywords assigned to the data are retrieved,
The storage means 15 for data or the like is searched by the logical sum of them. As a result, the related data candidates are extracted.

FIG. 3 shows an example of a database stored in the above database system. Each data in the database shown in FIG. 3 is divided into a headline and contents, and a keyword is given to each record. The headline and content can be searched by these keywords, and each headline is one of the keywords. The user interface on the display of this database system has a window structure as shown in FIG. In FIG. 4, one of the keywords is input as a search key in the search key input area 21,
By pointing the search button 22 with the mouse, the corresponding data is searched from the database and displayed in the window. FIG. 5 shows a display example when the database of FIG. 3 is searched with the search key “4P”. In FIG. 5, the index “4P” is displayed in the search history display area 23 and the search result display area 24. Here, when the related search button 25 is designated by the mouse, the related search process is activated.

Next, in the above-mentioned database system, a processing procedure for searching for data related to the currently displayed data will be described with reference to the database configuration diagram of FIG. 6 and the flowchart of FIG. In FIG. 6, ~ indicates the order of processing.

First, in FIG. 6, when there is an instruction for a related search through the input means 13 of the user interface 11 (), all the keywords of "4P""4P, product, price, marketing mix, channel," are searched by the search means 14. "Promotion" is retrieved (
). Next, the data other than "4P" is retrieved from the storage means 15 such as data by the logical sum of "4P, product, price, marketing mix, channel, promotion" (). Here, since a plurality of candidates, “marketing”, “fractional price”, and “promotion” are searched, processing is performed according to the flowchart of FIG. 7.

First, in step 101, P1 = {promotion} and P2 = {marketing, fractional price}. In step 102, the keyword of that element is compared with the keyword of "4P" and arranged in the order of having many matching search keys.Since there is only one element here, P1 '= {promotion}. Step 1
In 03, the keyword of "marketing" is "4P"
Since there are two search keys (price, promotion) for the keyword and there is only one (price) keyword for “fractional price”, the order is P2 ′ = {marketing, fractional price}. In step 104, P3 = {promotion, marketing, fractional price}. Next, in step 105, "promotion" is displayed in the display area of the window. A display example is shown in FIG. Here, the next candidate search button 26 appears, indicating that there is a next candidate. In step 106, it is determined whether or not there is an instruction to display the next candidate from the user, and the next candidate search button 26
If is not specified by the mouse, the process ends. If there is an instruction to display the next candidate, step 107
Proceed to the second element of P3, "marketing"
Is displayed. In step 108, it is determined whether or not the (N + 1) th element is empty, and when it is empty, the processing ends. Here, since it is determined that the third element of P3 is not empty, in step 109, the next candidate search button 26 is continuously displayed as shown in FIG. Step 11
At 0, it is determined whether or not there is an instruction to display the next candidate from the user, and if the next candidate search button 26 is not instructed by a mouse or the like, the process ends. When the next candidate display is instructed, the process returns to step 107 and the "fractional price", which is the third element of P3, is displayed. Next, in step 108, since the fourth element of P3 is determined to be empty, the next candidate search button 26 disappears as shown in FIG. 10, and the process ends.

In the above embodiment, a plurality of candidates are displayed in order according to an instruction from the user, but all candidates may be listed. FIG. 11 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure for displaying all the retrieved plural candidates. When a plurality of candidates, that is, “marketing”, “fractional price”, and “promotion” are obtained as related data of “4P” in the above embodiment, FIG.
If the process proceeds according to the procedure of
3 = {promotion, marketing, fractional price}. In step 205, all candidate headlines are displayed as shown in FIG. In FIG. 12, the second and third candidates “marketing” and “fractional price” are displayed in the heading candidate display area 23 in that order.
Here, by pointing one of the displayed candidates with the mouse, the specific headline content can be displayed in the search result display area 24 on the right side. Figure 1
In FIG. 2, “promotion” is highlighted in the headline candidate display area 23 in distinction from other items, and the content of “promotion” is displayed in the search result display area 24.

[0022]

As described above, in the database search device according to the present invention, when searching for data related to the currently displayed data, all the keywords included in the displayed data are searched. When a logical sum is obtained, the database is searched based on the logical sum of the keywords, and when a plurality of candidates are searched, the headings of these searched data are included in the elements of the keywords used for the search. Since it is determined whether or not the data included in the keyword element used for the search is preferentially displayed, the user simply points the related search button or the like with the mouse, The related data candidates can be presented. For this reason,
It is not necessary to enter the keyword that seems to be given to the related data, and when registering the data, it is not necessary to link the data for the related search and the management of the link is also unnecessary. Therefore, it is possible to provide a database search device having a better user interface.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a functional configuration of a database system constructed by a database search device.

FIG. 2 is a configuration block diagram showing an embodiment of a database search device according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of a database stored in a database system.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a user interface on a display.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a display example when a database is searched with a search key.

FIG. 6 is a configuration diagram of a database.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure when a plurality of related data candidates are searched.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a display example of a window.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing a display example of a window.

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing a display example of a window.

FIG. 11 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure for displaying all retrieved plural candidates.

FIG. 12 is a diagram showing a display example of a window.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 ... CRT, 3 ... keyboard, 4 ... mouse, 6 ... disk device, 9 ... CPU (central processing unit), 10 ... database system, 11 user interface, 12 ...
Display means, 13 ... Input means, 14 ... Search means, 15 ... Data and other storage means, 21 ... Search key input area, 22 ...
Search button, 23 ... Search history display area, 24 ... Search result display area, 25 ... Related search button, 26 ... Next candidate search button

Claims (1)

Claim: What is claimed is: 1. Input means for inputting various data, keyword assigning means for assigning a plurality of keywords to each data, and storage for storing a database having the data to which the keywords are assigned. Means, a display means for displaying various data, an arithmetic means for obtaining a logical sum of all the keywords included in the displayed data when searching for data related to the currently displayed data, When a plurality of candidates are searched by the search means for searching the database based on the logical sum of keywords, the headings of the searched data are the elements of the keyword used for the search. Priority is given to the determination means for determining whether or not it is included, and the data in which the headline is included in the element of the keyword used for the search. Database retrieval system, characterized in that it comprises a display control means for displaying on.