JPH07319893A - Easily generated data base and data retrieval/extraction method - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To prevent interference in the display of character data by setting the presence or absence of a space as the detection reference of the start/end positions of character data and constituting a character information unit. CONSTITUTION:When a retrieval character string is detected, the start point of the character information unit of the retrieval character string is searched by tracing back stored character data of a buffer. When stored initial character data of one line in the buffer is not the space (1), the position is set to be the start point of the character information unit. In the detection of an end point, it is started from the line where the retrieval character string is detected. When last character data of one line is the space (2), the position is set to be the end point of the character information unit. The space (3) in the middle of the line is treated as regular character data. When character data does not exist in one line (4), the line is set to be out of the object of detecting the start/end positions of character data. When the number of the lines of the character information unit increases, the position of the retrieval character string is hard to detect. In such a case, a * mark is added to the start point of the line including the retrieval character string (5).

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention is a character data storage medium and device that uses the presence or absence of spaces to detect the starting and ending points of character data, and its data retrieval / extraction method. It can be used for various purposes such as industrial, academic and educational purposes. The character data storage medium and device here mean a storage medium such as a database, a disk storing character data such as an electronic book or instruction manual, a CD-ROM, a tape and the like, and a device combined therewith. They are collectively called a database. This database can be applied to all types such as electric type, magnetic type and optical type. The character data searched and extracted by this method is
Targets all character data in the database. It is not a search method using only headwords that is used in general search methods. Therefore, this search / extraction method can be used not only in the database of this method but also in combination with general electronic books and manuals. With this method,
Character data is basically handled, but image data is given an image number for each, and that number is treated as character data, and when output is displayed, external image data is read using the image number that digitized the character data, and the character data And overlap. Applicable devices include general-purpose computers (workstations, personal computers, etc.) as well as dedicated small computers and data read / write devices.
Hereinafter, they are collectively referred to as a computer or the like. By using this type of database and search / extraction method, desired character data can be automatically extracted by setting search conditions.
Also, the extracted character data has an advantage that it can be directly used as a database. It can be widely used from data communication databases to personal databases.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Database systems used in computers and the like differ depending on the software and hardware of computers, and there is no database of common system. With general-purpose database software, there is also a method of separating data with commas (,), but this is inconvenient to read with a word processor or editor. After all, there is no common method and it is unavoidable to combine and use conversion software.
Even with the same software, if the versions are different, the old and new data may not be compatible. It is very inconvenient for mutual use of data. In addition, the conventional search method does not have a function of automatically extracting the searched character data because it only searches.

[0003]

According to the present invention, the character data is provided with a data delimiter function so that the character data can be constructed in a range from one line to several tens of lines. By providing this delimiter function, the searched character data can be automatically extracted. Hereinafter, the character data of one segment is referred to as a character information unit. Since the data handled by this method is character data, as long as the operating system (OS) of a computer or the like is the same, it can be read and written by any computer or the like. This method attempts to store character data in a database in the same state as it is displayed on the screen of a computer or the like. Tabular data and ruled lines are
If those data cannot be replaced with character data,
The table and ruled lines are taken out and stored as spaces in the database, and at the time of output display, the space portion is converted into a table format or a ruled line is drawn. As described above, similarly to the case of the image data, it is also possible to attach a figure number and call the figure stored externally with the number at the time of output display.

[0004]

It has been invented that when a character information unit is constructed with the presence or absence of a space as a reference for detecting the starting point and the ending point of the character data, there is no interference with the display of the character data. This method is summarized as follows. The numbers in parentheses are the numbers in FIGS. 1, 2, and 3. (B) When reading or writing character data, the carriage return code (hereinafter referred to as CR code) is treated as one line of data. Since it is different from one line displayed on the screen, even a few lines of character data may be treated as one line on the display. Character data for search string is usually
Although it is within one line, it is possible that one line of the character data to be searched is more than several lines on the screen. If the entire line cannot be read due to hardware or software restrictions such as a computer, it is necessary to read and write the character data up to the carriage return in several steps. In a computer or the like, normally, this operation is automatically performed, but it is necessary to perform processing so as not to divide the character data in the middle, particularly to divide a 2-byte character such as a Chinese character into two. (B) If the beginning of the line is not a space (1), that position becomes the starting point of the character information unit. (C) When the character data immediately before the CR code is a space (2), the position is the end point of the character information unit.
Therefore, even if one line of character data is only a space, it is treated as the end point. (D) The space (3) in the middle of the line is treated as ordinary character data. (E) If there is no character data in one line (CR code only) (4), the start and end points of the character data are not detected and only the line feed and line feed, which are the original functions of the CR code, are performed. . The database and its character data search / extraction method is as follows. The character data in the database is read line by line, and the character data is stored in a buffer (details will be described later) while searching for a search character string. When the search character string is found, the character data in the stored buffer is traced back and the starting point of the character information unit of the search character string is searched. When the first character data of one line in the stored buffer is not a space (1), the position is set as the starting point of the character information unit. The end point detection starts from the line where the search character string is found, and when the last character data of one line is a space (2), the position is set as the end point of the character information unit. If the end space is not found in that line, the character data in the database is newly read line by line, and the end of each character information unit is searched while storing the character data in the buffer. The space for detecting the end point is used for detecting the end point, but is itself a part of the character data. It is not used only as a symbol for detecting the end point position, which is seen in data communication. Since it is a part of character data, the data extracted from the database can also be used as a database of the same format. Since the space (3) in the middle of the line is not character data at the end point, it is treated as normal character data. If there is no character data in one line (CR code only state) (4), the start and end position detection of character data is excluded. If the number of lines in the character information unit becomes large, the position of the search character string becomes difficult to understand. At that time, add a * symbol or the like to the starting point of the line containing the search character string (5) to find the position of the search character string. It will be easier. However, when using the character data with the * symbol again as a database, the * symbol will be treated as the starting point of the line, so when registering in the database, either take the * symbol or use the * symbol as a space. It should be treated as equivalent. The space referred to in the present invention is a space for half-width characters, but if many full-width characters such as kanji are used, it is possible to use full-width spaces instead of half-width spaces, or to enable both. . The data retrieval / extraction method has the following configuration. The numbers in parentheses are the numbers in FIG. (B) Character data from an external storage medium or device via a keyboard (including voice input, handwriting input, OCR input method, etc., but generically referred to as a keyboard hereinafter) or a floppy disk device or a CD-ROM device. Reading input part (6) (b) Buffer for temporarily storing tens of lines of character data (7) (c) Part to search for desired character string (8) (d) Start and end position of character information unit Detecting and extracting part (9) (e) Displaying and storing the extracted character information unit (10) (f) Database created by the method of the present invention (11) 1 from keyboard or external storage medium or device The read character string (a) for each line is the internal database (b)
Search whether or not it is included in. Conversely, it is also possible to search whether the read character string for each line from (b) is included in (a) (referred to as external search). If there is no read data (CR code only), it is excluded from the search target. When there is no read data, the process ends. However, if the search character string has been detected, the data is extracted and the process ends. The search character string can be one or two or more. In the case of two or more, since the search conditions of the character string can be ANDed, the search conditions can be changed to a plurality. The search / extraction of FIG. 4 is as follows. The character data of the database (11) is read line by line and stored in the buffer (7). The search unit (8) searches for whether the stored character data includes the search character string from the input unit (6). If there are two or more search strings, search as follows. The character data in the database is read line by line, and each time a plurality of search character strings are searched one by one for the character data in the database. Therefore, if the input unit also has a buffer for temporarily storing the search character string, the search speed is improved. For external search: Database line by line (1
The character data of 1) is read and stored in the buffer (7). It is searched whether the stored character string is included in the character data from the input unit (6). When there are two or more lines of character data from the input unit, the character strings in the database are read line by line, and each time a plurality of input character data are searched one by one for the character strings in the database. Therefore, the search speed becomes faster when the input section also has a buffer. In this case, the character data in the database becomes the search character string, so if there is a space for the end point in the database, it is temporarily deleted only during the search. When the search character string is found, the starting point and the ending point of the character information unit of the data are searched in (9). The starting point position is detected for the data in the buffer (7), and if the first character data of a line is not a space, it is detected from the newest to the oldest for each line of data.
As described above, if there is no data (CR code only), line feed and line feed are performed and the process proceeds to the next line.
The detection of the end point position starts from the searched character line and checks whether the last character data of one line is a space. If there is no space on that line, read one line at a time from the new database and store it in buffer (7).
Detects that the last character data of one line is a space. Thus, the line including the start point to the line including the end point becomes the character information unit of the search character string, and this is extracted. When detecting the starting point position and the ending point position, the number of storage lines in the buffer (7) should not exceed half each, and the total number of storage lines in the buffer should not exceed. Then, the detected character information unit is stored in the buffer, and the unit proceeds to the display / storage unit described later. Finally, the extracted character information unit is displayed on the screen by the display / storage unit (10) and stored in the storage device. If there is image data, the image data is read from the outside based on the image number and is superimposed on the character data. As will be described below, the replacement section (12) is provided. Note that this search / extraction method also has the following functions as supplementary functions. (A) Correspondence when starting point / ending point cannot be detected If the starting point position in character information unit cannot be detected even if searching for an arbitrary number of lines in the buffer, data is extracted for that number of lines.
A symbol that is displayed and indicates that the starting point of the character information unit was not found at the beginning (for example, ???
? ) Add. Similarly, if the end position of the character information unit cannot be detected even if the data is read over an arbitrary number of lines, all the read data will be extracted and displayed, and a symbol that indicates that the end position of the character information unit could not be found. (Eg * ????????) is added at the end. It is convenient to be able to select the arbitrary number of rows depending on the database configuration and the method of using search / extract. As a result, the character information before and after the search character string can be extracted even in the case of a normal electronic book or manual text that is not the database method of the present invention. (B) It is possible to specify the character position from the beginning of the line of the search character string. For example, a character string starting with the third character is searched. This is the same as the column specification function of a general-purpose database. (C) Addition of replacement function A replacement character string for the search character string is defined in advance (for example, the next read data in the database or
Replace the search character string with the replacement character string. This replacement function can be applied to English-Japanese translation, Japanese-English translation, etc., by using the database of FIG. Finally, the partially or completely replaced character string is displayed on the screen by the display / storage unit and stored in the storage device. Now you have a simple translation tool. Since a simple replacement results in an incomplete translated text in which Japanese and English are mixed, a function for preprocessing the replacement is provided so that the replacement can be performed in advance. This preprocessing function is called a dictionary function. The principle is to partially partially replace the terms in the database beforehand. For example, if you replace "arm length" with English, "a
rm length ". This means that if" arm "exists in the database before" arm length "is replaced, part of the arm will be replaced, resulting in" arm length "and" arm length ". This is because the "length" cannot be replaced. Therefore, in the dictionary function, "arm length" is set to "arm length" in advance. (D) Equipped with a simple word processing function Equipped with a simple word processing function to enter two or more columns or to create or change a database (e) Output file save / delete function Extracted character information unit is displayed and output file It can be stored and stored above. If necessary, it can be registered as a database, but if the data in the file becomes larger than necessary, it can be deleted. Recording, deletion, integration function The extracted character information unit can be used as it is as a database, but it is not necessary to create a database for all character information units, so only when necessary, register from the output file. The function to delete the database that has been created and the function to combine the files of two or more databases are provided. (G) Output the output file to the outside The character information unit accumulated and stored in the output file is It has a function to output to a printer, and if it can be read to another word processor or editor as a file output, it can also output to a printer from there. Electronic books and manuals are convenient because you can operate them while checking the search status. Since the search data can be automatically extracted,
Even with a large amount of character data from the outside, if you set the conditions, you can automatically extract the data. Therefore, the estimated operation time should be displayed. The processing unit time of a computer or the like is calculated in advance, and this is multiplied by both the database and the number of retrieved (searched) character data lines to calculate the operation time.

[0005]

[Function] The database of this method is created with character data that can be read by any general-purpose computer, and the non-display space as the character data is used as the criterion for data detection. Become. It can also be applied to small dedicated computers. Further, this method can be applied to a data communication method. By performing a data search using the search character string, only the necessary data can be automatically extracted. The extracted data can be used as a new data derivatively.

[0006]

EXAMPLES The following application examples can be given. (B) Extraction of data including search character string Input the search character string from the keyboard or external storage medium or device, and search whether the character string is included in the database. Extract automatically. If you create a database as shown in Fig. 3, you can search and extract character data from either of them without switching between English and Japanese. (B) Search / extraction of external document It is searched whether the character string in the database is included in the character data input from the keyboard, external storage medium or device. By storing a dictionary in the database and extracting character information units, a related glossary can be created automatically. You can also search and automatically extract character strings from electronic books and manuals. (C) AND search It is also possible to perform a search only when two or more search character strings are simultaneously included in the character information unit. With this, you can select only the necessary information. Data can be automatically extracted using the database of the method of the present invention, so desired data can be automatically extracted if conditions are set. If you use a code or number instead of the search string to store it in the database and use the column specification function described above, you can search by code or number even if it is not a search string, so it can be applied to the menu system. (D) Mutual conversion of English / Japanese sentence By replacing the Japanese sentence of the search character string with the English sentence and the English sentence with the Japanese sentence, it is possible to use the terms registered in the database to carry out the English-Japanese translation and the Japanese-English translation. As an application of this function,
You can also check the text by checking what is not replaced. This is useful for checking katakana terms that can be easily visually checked and for unifying terms.

[0007]

【The invention's effect】

(B) If you use a built-in or commercially available word processor or editor,
Since anyone can easily create a database, the format of the database can be standardized and data can be shared. Image data can also be stored by replacing it with character data. (B) A plurality of conditions can be set by using the AND function, which can automatically extract the character information unit of the searched character string. If you replace the search character string with a code or number, you can select it by the menu method. Since the extracted data becomes a database again, a new database can be derived. (C) By using this search / extraction method, the character information in the text of electronic books and manuals can also be automatically extracted. (D) This method can be applied to a data communication method. This allows the necessary data to be received automatically. (E) A simple English-Japanese translation or Japanese-English translation can be performed using the replacement function.

[Brief description of drawings]

[Figure 1] Basic configuration of character information unit

FIG. 2 is an application example 1 of character information unit.

FIG. 3 is an application example 2 of character information unit.

[Figure 4] Configuration diagram of search / extraction method

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Start of character information unit (character that is not a space) 2 End point of character information unit (space) 3 Space in the middle of line 4 Line without character data (carriage return only) 5 Line that includes search character string * mark 6 Input unit 7 Buffer 8 Character string search unit 9 Start / end point detection and extraction unit of character information unit 10 Display / storage unit of character information unit 11 Database 12 replacement unit of this method

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A character data storage medium and device such as a database in which the presence or absence of a space is used to detect the start and end points of character data. 2. A data search / extraction method combined with claim 1.