JPH07129609A - Method and device for processing data - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide a method and a device for processing data capable of shortening the time required for retrieving the data. CONSTITUTION:This data processor is for instructing a character or a character string and retrieving the data of a data name including the corresponding character or character string and the character or character string to be retrieved and an output order for outputting retrieved results are instructed from a keyboard 3. The word length of the data name for which at least a part of the character or character string coincides is stored in a memory, the stored word length is referred to and the data provided with the data name are retrieved in an order corresponding to the word length corresponding to the instructed output order.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a data processing method and apparatus for inputting a character or a character string and searching for data having a data name including the character or the character string at least partially matching the character or the character string. It is a thing.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A conventional data search process in this type of data processing apparatus will be described. When searching for data that matches the entered keywords from multiple dictionaries or databases, always search for data that matches the keywords in a fixed order, regardless of the order of the data stored in these dictionaries or databases. ing. That is,
First, an index such as a dictionary is searched, and it is determined in which data block the character string corresponding to the keyword may exist. When the data block is found, the contents of the data block are loaded into the main memory, the data block is searched, and the searched results are arranged in ascending or descending order and stored in the memory.

[0003]

Problem to be Solved by the Invention That is, FIG. 4 (A)
As shown in (B), consider a case where there are two dictionaries A and B, each of which stores data as shown in FIG. Here, when the keyword "onnaoya" is input, first, as shown in FIG. 6A, the index of the dictionary A is searched by this keyword to detect a character string that matches the keyword. Next, as shown in FIG. 6 (B), the index of the dictionary B is searched to detect "On: Go" that matches the two leading characters "On" of the keyword. In this case, it is necessary to arrange the character strings indicating the search results including the partial matches of the keywords so as to be in ascending order in the final Japanese syllabary order. However, FIG.
As in (A), the character string "Onnaoya: Female Parent" that should come later is searched first, and the character string "On:
If "O" is searched later, these character strings will eventually have to be rearranged in the Japanese syllabary order. For this reason, when the number of searched character strings becomes large, this rearrangement requires a lot of time, and there is a problem that the data search time becomes long.

The present invention has been made in view of the above conventional example, and an object of the present invention is to provide a data processing method and apparatus capable of reducing the time required for data retrieval.

[0005]

In order to achieve the above object, the data processing method of the present invention comprises the following steps.
That is, a data processing method for instructing a character or a character string and searching for data including the corresponding character or character string, which includes a step of instructing a character or a character string to be searched and an output order for outputting a search result. There is a step of instructing, and a step of storing a word length of a data name in which at least a part of the character or the character string matches and searching the data in the order of the word length according to the output order.

In order to achieve the above object, the data processing device of the present invention has the following configuration. That is, a data processing device for instructing a character or a character string and searching for data having a data name including a corresponding character or character string, and outputting an instruction means for instructing a character or a character string to be searched and a search result. Referring to the order length indicating means for indicating the output order, the storing means for storing the word length of the data name in which at least a part of the character or the character string matches, and the word length stored in the storing means, Search means for searching for data having the data name in an order corresponding to the word length according to the output order instructed by the instructing means.

[0007]

In the above structure, when a character or character string to be searched is designated and an output order for outputting the search result is designated, data in which at least a part of the character or character string stored in the storage means matches. It operates to refer to the word length of the name and retrieve the data having the data name in the order corresponding to the word length according to the instructed output order.

[0008]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT A preferred embodiment of the present invention will now be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of a data processing device according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 1 is a flow chart showing a control process executed by the central processing unit (CPU) 1.

In FIG. 2, reference numeral 1 denotes a central processing unit for controlling the entire apparatus, which includes a CPU such as a microprocessor,
Various controls are performed in accordance with programs stored in the program memory 203 of the main storage unit 2. The main storage unit 2 is further equipped with a dictionary A200 and a dictionary 50 for loading and storing a certain data block of the dictionary A501 of the auxiliary storage unit 5.
Dictionary B2 for loading and storing a data block with 1
01, a code length 202 that stores a code length that starts with a certain character, a search result storage unit 204 that stores a search result, and the like are provided for each dictionary. The code length 202 may be stored in the auxiliary storage unit 5 when the dictionaries A and B are stored in the auxiliary storage unit 5. A keyboard 3 is operated by an operator to input search instructions and various commands. A pointing device or the like may be connected to the keyboard so that commands can be input using the menu displayed on the display unit 4. Reference numeral 4 denotes a display unit such as a CRT or liquid crystal. Reference numeral 5 denotes an auxiliary storage unit, which is composed of, for example, a floppy disk or a hard disk, and stores various databases or various dictionaries. The dictionary A200 or B201 of the main storage unit 2 may be read and stored from the dictionaries A and B included in the main storage unit 2.

Next, the operation of the data processing apparatus of this embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 and 4 to 5. The control program shown in the flowchart of FIG. 1 is stored in the program memory 203.

In the processing shown in FIG. 1, when a keyword is input from the keyboard 3, it is checked whether or not a character string matching or partially matching the keyword is stored in the dictionary A or the dictionary B. The keyword length is compared with the length of the character string stored in the index of each dictionary. Then, it is searched whether there is a character string that partially matches the keyword. Then, a data block that seems to contain the character string is loaded into the main storage unit 2 and it is determined whether there is a character that matches the keyword. When all or part of the keywords match, those character strings are extracted, arranged in, for example, the Japanese syllabary, and displayed on the display unit 4 as a search result.

3 and 4 are diagrams showing the data structure of the dictionary stored in the main memory 2 of this embodiment.

FIG. 3 shows an example of the data structure of the code length storage unit 202. In this data length 202, the dictionary A5
01 and B502 data sections 211 and 213, respectively
In, the first character (code) is "Ah ... wa, ゐ,
The longest number of character strings starting with that character is stored in correspondence with "A, O, N". That is, when a character string of 2, 5, or 6 characters that starts with a certain character exists in the data part of the dictionary, the longest number "6" is set as the code length, and when it does not exist at all, "0" Is stored.
For example, as shown in FIG. 4A, since the data portion 211 of the dictionary A501 has two words of “onna” and “onnaoya”, which are three characters and five characters, the first character is “o”. The code length of "" is "5" by taking the longer word length. On the other hand, as shown in FIG.
In the data part 213 of the dictionary B502, "o" and "on"
There are two words, one character and two characters,
The code length in which the first character is "O" is "2" by taking the longer word length. Further, since there is no word starting with "U" in any of the data parts of the dictionaries A501 and B502, the code length of which the first character is "U" is "0".

Each of FIGS. 4A and 4B is a dictionary A5.
01 and the data structure of the dictionary B502.
In (A), 210 indicates an index of the dictionary A501, and 211 indicates a data part. Further, in FIG. 4B, 212 is the dictionary B.
An index 502 and a data portion 213 of the dictionary B are shown. In these indexes, the first word (keyword) stored in each block and its block number are stored in pairs. Further, the data part is divided into blocks in a specific unit, and each block stores a keyword and data related to the keyword.

Next, the flowchart of FIG. 1 will be described based on the above configuration.

Now, in step S1, for example, the keyboard 3
When the keyword "Onna-ya" is input from, etc., the process proceeds to step S2, and based on the keyword, the length information of the word (keyword) existing in each dictionary stored in the code length 202 is obtained. Ask. Here, the word length starting with the first character "O" of the keyword "Onnaoya" is obtained. In this example, as shown in FIG. 3, the dictionary A 501 has “5”, and the dictionary B 502 has “2”.

Next, in step S3, it is checked whether all the dictionaries have been searched, and when the search of all dictionaries is completed, step S11.
If not, the process proceeds to step S4. Step S
In 4, it is checked whether or not the search results are stored in the sort order, that is, in the ascending or descending order such as the Japanese syllabary order or alphabetical order. If the search results are ascending order, the word with the smallest code length is stored. From the dictionary (here, the dictionary B), in descending order, the reading is started from the dictionary (here, the dictionary A) in which the word having the maximum code length is stored. In the present embodiment, the maximum code length of the word starting with the character "O" is "5" in the dictionary A501 and "2" in the dictionary B, and the search results are stored in ascending order. The search is started from the dictionary B having a short length.

Here, in step S5, the index 212 of the dictionary B502 is checked to find a data block starting with the corresponding word, and the data block is loaded from the data section 213 into the dictionary B201 of the main storage section 2. In this way, the dictionary B201 is sequentially searched in steps S7 to S9, and when the longest matching word "on" from the first character of the input keyword "onnaoya" is detected, the process proceeds to step S10, in which the search result storage unit It is stored in 204 (FIG. 5)
(A)). After the search of the dictionary B201 is completed in this way, the process proceeds to steps S3 and S14, and then the dictionary A501.
The search for is started.

Also in this case, as in the case of the above-mentioned dictionary B, "Onnaoya" is searched by referring to the index 210 of the dictionary A501, and the data block of the dictionary A501 having this word is stored in the main storage unit 2. It is stored in the dictionary A200. In this way, "on naoya" is stored as the longest matching keyword next to "on" in the search result storage unit 204 (step S10). This state is shown in FIG. In this way, in step S10, since the word length of “Onna-ya” is longer than that of “On” that is already stored, the data indicating the result retrieved in the retrieval result storage unit 204 is not replaced. , Search results can be sorted and saved.

Thus, when the search of the dictionary A501 is completed and the search of all the dictionaries is completed in step S3, step S1
In step 1, it is determined whether or not data is stored in the search result storage unit 204. If there is matching data, the process proceeds to step S12, in which the display unit 4 indicates that there is matching data.
Or stored in the main storage unit 2. If no matching data is found as a result of the search, the process proceeds to step S13, and the fact that there is no data matching the keyword is displayed on the display unit 4 or stored in the main storage unit 2.

As described above, according to this embodiment, it is not necessary to rearrange the retrieved data in ascending order or descending order, so that the time required for the retrieval process can be shortened.

In this embodiment, since the longest matching word is detected in step S7, as shown in FIG. 5B, only "on" and "onnaoya" are searched and arranged. However, if a matching word is extracted from at least the first character, “O”, “ON”, “ONNA”, and “ONNAYA” are sequentially searched and stored in the search result storage unit 204 as they are. Needless to say, in this case, the same effect as described above can be obtained.

The present invention may be applied to a system composed of a plurality of devices or an apparatus composed of a single device. Further, it goes without saying that the present invention can also be applied to the case where it is achieved by supplying a program for implementing the present invention to a system or an apparatus.

[0025]

As described above, according to the present invention, the time required for data retrieval can be shortened.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a flowchart showing a data search process in a data processing device of this embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of a data processing device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a data structure of a code length storage unit of the present embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a data structure of a dictionary A (FIG. 4A) and a dictionary B (FIG. 4B) of the present embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram showing a data search process in the present embodiment, FIG. 5 (A) shows a search result of the dictionary B, and FIG.
Indicates the search result of the dictionary A.

FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram showing a conventional data search process.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 central processing unit (CPU) 2 main memory unit 3 keyboard 4 display unit 5 auxiliary memory unit 200 load area of dictionary A 201 load area of dictionary B 202 code length 203 program memory 204 search result storage unit 501 dictionary A 502 dictionary B

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A data processing method for instructing a character or a character string to retrieve data containing a corresponding character or character string, the step of instructing the character or the character string to be retrieved, and outputting the retrieval result. A step of instructing an output order, a step of storing a word length of a data name in which at least a part of the character or the character string matches, and searching the data in the order of the word length according to the output order. A data processing method comprising: 2. A data processing device for instructing a character or a character string to retrieve data having a data name including the corresponding character or character string, and an instructing means for instructing a character or a character string to be retrieved. Refer to the order instruction means for instructing the output order for outputting the result, the storage means for storing the word length of the data name in which at least a part of the character or the character string matches, and the word length stored in the storage means. A search means for searching for data having the data name in an order corresponding to the word length according to the output order instructed by the order instructing means.