JPH07319892A - Character string collation device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To speedily and appropriately search a character string obtained by means of showing a word which a user intends by free notation by including a similar notation. CONSTITUTION:A text storage means 5 holding a text, a character string storage means 2 holding the character string to be searched, a character string deformation means 8 changing the notations of the character string in the text and the character string to be searched in accordance with the same rule 9 and a collation means 6 collating whether the character string whose notation is changed is included in the text whose notation is changed are provided. The searched character string held in the character string storage means 2 and the text held by the text storage means 5 are deformed into the same notations by the character string deformation means 8 with the same rule. The character string collation means 6 collates the searched character string whose notation is deformed with the text, and collates whether the searched character string is included in the text.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a character string collating device for collating whether or not a character string to be searched is included in a target text, and more particularly to a character string collating device which eliminates the influence of fluctuation in the notation of the character string. Regarding

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Functions and tools for scanning a text file and collating a character string designated by a user are widely used not only in an information retrieval system but also in an editor system. Such a conventional character string collating device collates a character string that exactly matches a character string designated by the user for a search with a text file. However, in Japanese, for example, "window" and "window", "index" and "index",
There is a situation in which katakana notation is not uniform even though the same word is shown, and similar notations exist, such as “interface” and “interface”. Further, there is a situation that not only the katakana notation but also the notation of the sending kana such as “reading device”, “reading device”, “reading device”, etc. is not uniform. Therefore, when searching for a character string that exactly matches the character string specified by the user, a character string of similar notation is omitted from the target, and the word intended by the user cannot be searched from the text file.

The following techniques have been conventionally known to improve the above problems. Literature "U
UNIX programming environment "(Brian W. Kernighan, Rob
The information retrieval method (egrep) described by Pike, ASCII Publishing Office, 1985) makes a character string to be searched into a pattern including a similar notation, and displays all lines of text including the character string matching this pattern. To do.
For example, when including the notations “window” and “window”, the expression “|” of the or operator is used to convert these character strings into a pattern of “window | window” or “window”. In addition, when the expressions "read", "read", and "read" are included, the expression "?" Meaning zero or one character is used to read these character strings. take? The pattern is'. Therefore, according to this information search method, it is possible to perform character string matching including all similar notations assumed by the user.

Further, the search method described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 62-11932 automatically expands a character string to be searched to a similar notation including notations of different characters such as kana, romaji and kanji. It displays all lines of text that contain strings that match a group of similar notations.
Therefore, according to this search method, it is possible to perform character string matching including all automatically expanded similar notations. In the search method described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 63-211023, a character string in katakana notation in a text is converted into a standard notation by converting vowels into long vowels in advance, and the standard notation is used as a search file. To search for
Similarly, the input character string is converted into standard notation, the search file is searched, and the corresponding text is searched. Therefore, according to this search method, it is possible to perform the character string collation including the character string of similar written Katakana. Further, in addition to this, a character string of the same meaning and a different notation is set in advance in the synonym dictionary, and at the time of search, the input character string is expanded to similar notation by referring to the synonym dictionary and a search is performed. Search methods are also known.

[0005]

However, in the above-mentioned conventional information retrieval method (egrep), since the similar notation has to be specified by the user, the notation fluctuates at any part of the character string. Further, the user must know in advance what kind of similar notation exists, and the accuracy of character string matching greatly depends on the user's knowledge. Also, JP-A-62-11
In the search method described in Japanese Patent No. 932, since the character string is automatically expanded to a similar notation including notations of different characters, for example, characters in katakana notation that are not written in kanji The strings are also converted to the Kanji notation and the character string collation is performed, so that the notation not required by the user is collated, which causes an increase in processing time and an increase in the size of the system.

Further, in the search method described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 63-211023, the text cannot be subjected to character string collation unless the text is processed in advance so that it can be standardized. However, there is a problem that the system becomes large in size because complicated preparations are required and a search file must be retained for standardization. In addition, in the search method in which a synonym dictionary is referred to and expanded to a similar notation and a search is performed, a character string that is not in the synonym dictionary cannot be searched. There is a problem that the system becomes large because a word dictionary must be prepared.

The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned conventional circumstances, and rationally solves the above problem, and appropriately searches for a character string in which a word intended by the user is expressed in free notation including similar notations. It is an object of the present invention to provide a character string collating device that can perform the above.

[0008]

A character string collating device of the present invention is a character string collating device for collating whether a character string to be searched is included in text, and a text storage means for holding the text and a character to be searched. A character string storage means for holding a string, a character string transformation means for changing the notation of the character string in the text and the searched character string according to the same rule, and a character string for which the notation has been changed for the changed text And a collating unit that collates whether or not is included.

The present invention can be used not only for character strings in katakana notation but also for collating character strings in other character types such as kanji and kana mixed notation or roman character notation depending on the rules for notation conversion. Also in this case, similar notations in character strings of these character types can be appropriately collated and searched. Further, various rules for transforming the notation can be set, and the point is that the rule can always transform the character string into a constant notation.

[0010]

According to the character string collating apparatus of the present invention, the character string transforming means writes the search character string held in the character string storing means and the text held in the text storing means under the same rule and the same notation. The transformed character string collating means collates the search character string obtained by transforming these notations with the text to determine whether the search character string is included in the text.

[0011]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS A character string collating apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention applied to a search for a character string written in katakana will be described below with reference to the drawings. As shown in FIG. 1, the character string collating apparatus according to the present embodiment includes a search character string input means 1 for a user to input a character string to be searched, and a search character string holding the search character string and other information. A storage unit 2, a text reading unit 4 for reading a text line to be subjected to character string matching from a text file 3, a text storage unit 5 for holding this text line and other information, and a search character string for matching with a text line. The character string collating means 6, the display means 7 for displaying the result of the character string collation, the transforming means 8 for transforming the notation of the search character string and the text line, and the transformation rule dictionary 9 for recording the rules for the notation transformation. And have.

A control code is input from the search character string input means 1 in addition to the character code of the search character string, and in this embodiment, the character string collating means 6 is activated by inputting a control code meaning a line feed. It Search character string storage means 2
Is the search string and the length of the string (ie,
The number of characters) and the search character string after the notation are transformed and their length are also retained. The text reading means 4 reads the text from the text file 3 line by line according to the instruction of the character string collating means 6 and stores it in the text storage means 5. When there are no more lines to read from the target text. The processing by the character string collating device ends.
In the text storage means 5, as shown in FIG. 5, in addition to the variable line indicating the content of the read text line, a variable llen indicating the number of characters in the text line, a variable i indicating the collation start position in the text line, Variable str indicating the contents of the partial character string in the text line, variable inc indicating the increment of variable i
Is stored, and a collating process described later is performed based on the stored information.

The character string collating means 6 is a search character string storing means 2
The search character string stored in the text storage means 5 is sequentially collated with the content (str) of the partial character string in the text line stored in the text storage means 5, and if the character strings match, the text line is displayed in the display means 7. indicate. When the content (str) of the partial character string to be collated or the search character string is in katakana notation, the character string collating means 6 causes the transforming means 8 to transform the notation of this character string to perform the collating process. Rules for transforming the notations shown in FIGS. 2 and 3 are recorded in the transformation rule dictionary 9, and the transforming means 8 uses this rule to perform a transforming process of deleting or replacing a character string in katakana notation. For example, characters such as "tsu", "-", and "." Are deleted, "index" is transformed into "index", and "binary search" and "binary search" are transformed into "binary satchi".

According to the character string collating apparatus having the above-mentioned configuration, FIG.
Character string matching is performed according to the processing procedure shown in FIG. Here, in the following description, the text file 3 stores two lines of text, the first line being "structure of hierarchical index" and the second line being "search using binary search". It is assumed that the search character string "binary search" is input from the search character string input means 1.

First, when the user inputs a search character string from the search character string input means 1, the character string and the length of the character string are sent to the search character string storage means 2, and the search character string storage means 2 searches. The character string is the variable pat, and its length is the variable pl
It is held as en (step S1). That is, the search character string storage means 2 holds “binary search” as the variable pat and “8” as the variable plen. Along with the input of the search character string, the line feed code is also input from the search character string input means 1, and the character string collating means 6 is activated based on this. Next, the character string collating means 6 determines whether or not the contents of the variable pat include katakana (step S2). If the katakana is not included, the processing from step S4 onward is performed while katakana is included. If so, the character string collating means 6 instructs the transforming means 8 to transform the content of the variable pat (step S).
3). That is, the modification unit 8 applies the rule No. 5 of the modification rule dictionary 9 shown in FIG. 2 twice to the search character string "binary search" which is the content of the variable pat, and modifies the notation to "binary sachi". Is stored in the search character string storage means 2 as a new variable pat. Even in this case, the variable plen is held in the search character string storage means 2 as "8".

Then, based on the instruction from the character string collating means 6, the text reading means 4 causes the text file 3 to read.
Text is read line by line from the text storage means 5
To be held as a variable line (step S4). As a result, the first line of the text is held in the text storage means 5 as a variable line, as shown in FIG. Next, the character string collating means 6 judges whether or not the content of the variable line of the text storing means 5 is empty (step S5). If it is empty, the processing is ended, while if it is not empty, the text line The number of characters in the content of the variable line is set in the variable llen indicating the number of characters, and the initial value is set in the variable i indicating the collation start position, and is stored in the text storage means 5 (step S6). That is, as shown in FIG. 5B, the variable llen is set to "11" and the variable i is set to "1". Next, the character string collating means 6
Determines whether the value of the variable i is less than or equal to the value of the variable llen (step S7). If the value of the variable i is greater than the value of the variable llen, the collation processing is completed up to the last character of the text line. Return to step S4 to process the next line of text. On the other hand, the value of the variable i is the variable llen
If the value is less than or equal to, there is a portion of the text line that has not been subjected to the collation process, and therefore the process for the text line is continued. That is, since the variable i is "1" and the variable llen is "11" at this point, the process is continued.

Next, in order to check whether or not the notation needs to be changed, the character string collating means 6 judges whether or not the i-th character of the content of the variable line is katakana (step S8), and the character at the collation start position i is determined. If is a katakana, the notation transformation process described below is performed (steps S10 and S11).
At this point, the variable i is “1” and the first character of the variable line is “floor”, so the notation is not changed,
The character string collating means 6 sets the variable str of the text holding means 5 to the character string corresponding to the length of the search character string (variable plen) from the i-th (first) content of the variable line, and the variable i
An initial value is set in nc (step S9). That is, as shown in FIG. 5C, the variable str holds a character string “hierarchical index” for eight characters from the first character of the text line, and the variable inc holds “1”. . Next, the character string collating means 6 determines whether the content of the variable str includes the search character string which is the content of the variable pat (step S12). While the contents are displayed (step S15), if not included, the collation start position is moved to the next. In this case, since the search character string "binary sachi" is not included in the character string "hierarchical index", the character string collating means 6 sets the value of the variable i to the value of (i + inc) and moves the collation start position. (Step S1
3).

Next, the character string collating means 6 causes the variable plen to
Is compared with the value of (llen-i + 1) to determine whether the number of unmatched characters in the text line is less than the number of characters in the search character string (step S14). To return to the processing of step S4 to read the text line, and if not, the processing returns to step S7 to move the collation position in the text line being processed. In this case, the value of the variable plen is “8”,
Since the value of the variable llen is "11" and the value of the variable i is "2", the number of unmatched characters in the text line is equal to or more than the number of characters in the search character string, and therefore the process returns to step S7. Therefore, the character string collating means 6 determines that the value of the variable i is the variable llen.
Is determined to be less than or equal to the value of variable ilen (step S7), and the value of variable i is less than or equal to the value of variable llen.
It is determined whether the second (second) character is katakana (step S8).

In this case, since the second character is "layer", the notation is not changed, and the character string collating means 6 stores the search string from the second content of the variable line in the variable str of the text holding means 5. Variable inc that indicates the increment of variable i by setting the character string "layer index" for the length (8 characters)
Is set to "1" (step S9). Next, the character string collating means 6 determines whether the content of the variable str includes the search character string which is the content of the variable pat (step S12). In this case, the search character string "binary sat" is the character string "layer". Since it is not included in “in the index”, the character string collating means 6 sets the value of the variable i to the value “3” of (i + inc).
To move the collation start position (step S
13). Next, the character string collating means 6 compares the value of the variable plen with the value of (llen-i + 1) (step S
14) In this case, since the value of the variable plen is “8”, the value of the variable llen is “11”, and the value of the variable i is “3”, the number of unmatched characters in the text line is the search character string. Since there are more characters, the process returns to step S7.

Therefore, the character string collating means 6 determines that the variable i
Is less than or equal to the value of the variable llen (step S
7) Since the value of the variable i is less than or equal to the value of the variable llen, it is determined whether the i-th (third) character in the content of the variable line is katakana (step S8). As a result, since the third character is "a", the notation is modified, and the character string collating means 6 stores the katakana character string continuous from the i-th (third) character of the content of the variable line in the variable str. Set,
The number of characters of the contents of the variable str is set in the variable inc (step S10). That is, as shown in FIG. 5D, the variable str of the text storage means 5 holds "index" and the variable inc is set to this character number "6". Next, the character string collating means 6 is transformed by the transforming means 8.
To transform the notation of the katakana character string of the contents of the variable str (step S11). As a result, as shown in (e) of FIG. 5, the transforming means 8 transforms the “index” of the content of the variable str into “index” using the rules (FIGS. 2 and 3) recorded in the transform dictionary 9. To do.

Next, the character string collating means 6 determines the variable str.
It is determined whether the content of the search string includes the search character string that is the content of the variable pat (step S12). In this case, the search character string "binary sachi" is not included in the character string "index". The means 6 changes the value of the variable i to (i +
The value of (inc) is set to "3 + 6 = 9" and the collation start position is moved (step S13). Next, the character string collating means 6 compares the value of the variable plen with the value of (llen-i + 1) (step S14). As a result, the variable pl
Since the value of en is “8”, the value of the variable llen is “11”, and the value of the variable i is “9”, the number of unmatched characters in the text line is less than the number of characters in the search character string. Since it is determined, the process returns to step S4 to read the next text line.

As a result, the text reading means 5 reads the second line of the text "search using binary search" from the text file 3 and stores it in the text storage means 5 as a variable line (step S).
4). Then, the character string collating means 6 is replaced by the text storing means 5.
It is determined whether or not the content of the variable line of is empty (step S5). In this case, since it is not empty, as shown in (f) of FIG. The number of characters of the content is set to "15", the initial value "1" is set to the variable i indicating the collation start position, and it is held in the text storage means 5 (step S6). Next, the character string collating means 6 determines whether the value of the variable i is less than or equal to the value of the variable llen (step S7). In this case,
Since the variable i is “1” and the variable llen is “15”,
Continues the next process.

Next, the character string collating means 6 causes the variable line
It is determined whether or not the i-th (first) character of the content is katakana (step S8). In this case, since the first character is "inspection", the notation is not changed. Next, the character string collating means 6 sets the variable str of the text holding means 5 to the character string "search is binary" of "8" for the number of characters of the search character string from the i-th (first) content of the variable line, The initial value "1" is set in the variable inc (step S9). Next, the character string collating means 6 determines whether or not the content of the variable str includes the search character string "binary sachi" which is the content of the variable pat (step S1).
2) In this case, since the search character string is not included, the character string collating means 6 sets the value of the variable i to the value of (i + inc) "
It is set to 2 "and the collation start position is moved (step S13).

Next, the character string collating means 6 causes the variable plen to
Is compared with the value of (llen-i + 1) to determine whether the number of unmatched characters in the text line is less than the number of characters in the search character string (step S14). In this case, the value of the variable plen Is "8" and the value of the variable llen is "
Since 15 "and the value of the variable i are" 2 ", the number of unmatched characters in the text line is equal to or more than the number of characters in the search character string, and therefore the process returns to step S7. The processing of S14 is performed, but the content of the variable str of the text storage means 5 is "search is binary."
Therefore, the transformation process of step S11 is not performed, the search character string "binary" is not included in this character string (step S12), and the value of the variable plen is "
Since the value of the variable i is 8 "and the value of the variable llen is" 15 ", the value of the variable i is" 3 ", and the process returns to the process of step S7 in the determination of step S14. Then, the processes of steps S7 to S14 are performed again, but since the content of the variable str of the text storage means 5 is "is a binary server", the transformation process of step S11 is not performed, and the search is performed in this character string. The character string "binary" is not included (step S12), and the variable ple
Since the value of n is "8" and the value of the variable llen is "15", the value of the variable i is "4".
With the determination of 14, the process returns to step S7 again.

Further, similarly to the above, the processing of steps S7 to S14 is performed again, but this time, the variable li
Since the fourth character of the contents of ne is "ba", the notation is changed, and the character string collating means 6 changes the katakana character string continuous from the i-th (4th) character of the contents of the variable line to the variable str. And the number of characters of the contents of the variable str is set to the variable inc (step S10). That is,
As shown in (g) of FIG. 5, “binary search” is held in the variable str of the text storage means 5, and the variable in
The number of characters "8" is set in c. It should be noted that "-" and "." Following katakana are treated as katakana in this embodiment. Next, the character string collating means 6 instructs the transforming means 8 to transform the notation of the katakana character string of the content of the variable str (step S11). As a result, FIG.
As shown in (h) of the above, the transforming means 8 transforms the “binary search” of the content of the variable str into “binachisachi” using the rules (FIGS. 2 and 3) recorded in the transformation dictionary 9.

Then, the character string collating means 6 uses the variable str.
When it is determined whether the content of the search string includes the search character string that is the content of the variable pat (step S12), in this case, the search character string "binary sachi" is included in the character string "binary sachi" of the content of the variable str. Therefore, the character string collating means 6 outputs the contents of the variable line to the displaying means 7, and "Use binary search for search" is displayed on the screen of the displaying means 7 as a text line containing the search character string. (Step S15). Next, the text reading means 4 reads the next line from the text file 3 (step S4). However, since the text file 3 does not store the text of the second and subsequent lines, the text reading means 4 reads the text. In the variable line of the storage means 5
Then, the character string collating means 6 judges this state (step S5), and the series of character string collating processing is ended.

Here, in a document search operation or the like, detecting where the search character string designated by the user is located in the text is an important subject for improving the search workability. ing. In view of the above conventional circumstances, the second embodiment of the present invention also aims to detect the appearance position of the search character string in the collated text. FIG. 6 shows a characteristic processing procedure of the character string collating apparatus according to the second embodiment of the present invention. The description of the present embodiment will be made by citing the first embodiment described above, and the same portions will be denoted by the same reference symbols and redundant description will be omitted.

The character string collating apparatus according to the present embodiment is shown in FIG. 1 except that the search character string storage means 2 is also configured to hold position information of a search character string in a text line. It is similar to the configuration. The character string collating apparatus of this embodiment performs the character string collating process in the same manner as the processing procedure of steps S1 to S14 shown in FIG.
Determines that the content of the variable str includes the search character string that is the content of the variable pat (step S1
2) The character string collating means 6 detects the collating range in the text line (content of the variable line) of this search character string from the text storing means 5 and stores it in the search character string storing means 2 (step S16). That is, the start position of the matching range is the value of the variable i, and the ending position of the matching range is (i + inc)
-1), for example, when the search character string "binary search" described in the first embodiment is collated, the collation range is (4, 11).

Then, the character string collating means 6 uses the variable plen.
Is compared with the value of (llen-i + 1), it is determined that the number of unmatched characters in the text line is less than the number of characters in the search character string (step S14), and step S4 is performed to read the next text line. When the process returns to step S16, the character string collating means 6 determines whether the collating range is held in the search character string storing means 5 in step S16 (step S1).
7). As a result, when it is judged that it is held,
The character string collating means 6 outputs the contents of the variable line and the position information of the collating range to the display means 7, highlights the search character string, etc., and displays the text line containing the search character string on the screen of the display means 7. (Step S18). Thus, according to the present embodiment, it is possible to detect where the search character string is located in the collated text,
The workability of collation can be improved.

In the above embodiment, one search character string is inputted, but a plurality of search character strings may be separated by a special symbol and inputted. In this case, the character string collating means 6 may extract each search character string delimited by a special symbol and collate each search character string with a text line in the same manner as described above. Further, even when the notation is set to be changed for the Katakana character string, the search character string to be input may be a character string such as a Kanji character other than the Katakana word. The desired character string matching process can be performed only by not performing the notation transformation process. Further, the text to be collated may be read and processed in two or more lines instead of line by line.

[0031]

As described in detail above, according to the character string collating apparatus of the present invention, since the character string to be searched is collated with the text whose notation is changed according to the same rule, a huge synonym is obtained. Remarks and character strings that express the word intended by the user in free notation without including the processing that can be standardized in advance at the time of registration and without depending on the user's knowledge, including similar notations It is possible to search quickly and appropriately.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a character string matching device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a conceptual diagram showing a notation transformation rule table.

FIG. 3 is a conceptual diagram showing a notation transformation rule table.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure of character string matching according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a conceptual diagram showing a state of character string matching according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure of character string matching according to another embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 2 search character string storage means 5 text storage means 6 character string matching means 8 transformation means 9 transformation rule dictionary

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Makoto Ando 32-1 Sakado, Takatsu-ku, Kawasaki City, Kanagawa Prefecture KSP R & D Business Park Building Fuji Xerox Co., Ltd. (72) Kazuo Aihara Sakado, Takatsu-ku, Kawasaki City, Kanagawa Prefecture 3-2-1 KSP R & D Business Park Building in Fuji Xerox Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Tatsuomi Kita 3-2-1 Sakado, Takatsu-ku, Kawasaki City, Kanagawa KSP R & D Business Park Building in Fuji Xerox Co., Ltd.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. In a character string collating device for collating whether a character string to be searched is included in text, a text storage means for holding the text, a character string storage means for holding the character string to be searched, and A character string transforming means for changing the notation of the character string and the searched character string according to the same rule, and a collating means for checking whether or not the changed notation text includes the changed notation string, A character string collating device characterized by being provided.