JPH08278980A - Data processor - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To link information like a hypertext without linking it to a specified node and to show the presence of the node to a user clearly. CONSTITUTION: A data base has one or plural records each consisting of data consisting of a character string and a retrieval key for retrieving the data; when some data contains a retrieval key that the data base has, the character string in the data is displayed distinctively from other character strings, so that the user can easily find the retrieval key. Consequently, hypertext-like movement between data is enabled without providing link information, and navigational information for data retrieval by a user can be offered.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a database system and a hypertext system, and in particular, in a database in which the content and number of data dynamically change, it is possible to move between hypertext-like information without providing link information. And a data processing device that enables

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Hypertext systems make it possible to link a plurality of text data and dynamically move between them. For conventional hypertext systems, see "Hypertext: An I.
ntroduction and Survey ”,
COMPUTER, Vol. 20, No. 9, 1
987, the Computer Society
It has been introduced on of the IEEE etc.

According to the above-mentioned document, the hypertext system forms explicit links between data,
It is roughly divided into those that form an implicit link.

A problem in hypertext systems that form explicit links is link maintenance. For example, if there is a change or addition to the data, in order to maintain the integrity of the previously existing link, the work of changing, adding, or deleting the link cannot be avoided. For this reason, the conventional hypertext system is often applied to data, such as an operation manual, on the assumption that the user does not change the hypertext system. That is, the work of associating nodes with links is carefully performed by the creator of hypertext data,
There are many application cases where the user only operates.

Further, as in the "data processing device" described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 4-227550, a hypertext document is easily edited using a conventional editor. However, this facilitates editing on hypertext data with traditional links,
There is no change in the need for link maintenance.

[0006] On the other hand, in a hypertext system using so-called implicit links, which does not have explicit links but links data by keyword search, it is possible to explicitly indicate the existence of a node to the user. I could not do it, and had to rely on chance to move between data.

[0007]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Therefore, an object of the present invention is to connect information in a hypertext manner and to clearly show the existence of a node to a user without providing an explicit node and a link. It is to provide a data processing device.

[0008]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION A data processing apparatus of the present invention includes one or a plurality of records each of which is a set of character string data and one or a plurality of search keys for searching the character string data. A database to be stored, a first searching unit that searches the character string data of a certain record for a search key held by the database, and characters of the record searched by the first searching unit. An identification unit is provided that allows the character string representing the search key in the column data to be identified from other character strings, and a display unit that presents the character string that can be identified by the identification unit to the user.

Further, the data processing device of the present invention further comprises:
The system includes an instructing unit that allows a user to instruct a character string representing the identifiable search key, and a second searching unit that searches using the character string instructed by the instructing unit as a search key.

[0010]

In the present invention, the character string in the data is compared with the set of search keys in the database, and when the element of the set of search keys exists in the character string of the data, the character string is replaced with another character string. Make the display distinguishable from a character string.

Further, when the user designates the identifiable character string by the instructing means, the character string is searched as a search key and it is possible to move to other data.

[0012]

1 is a block diagram showing a data processing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. The apparatus shown in FIG. 1 includes a central processing unit (CPU) 101 and a read-only storage device (RO).
M) 102 and random access storage device (RAM) 1
03, a secondary storage device 104 for storing data, a display device 105 for displaying data, an input device 106 for inputting data and commands, and an auxiliary input device 107 for assisting input of data and commands. It is configured.

The secondary storage device 104 for storing data is
For example, it is a readable / writable storage device such as a hard disk, a floppy disk, a magneto-optical disk, or may be a storage device such as a CD-ROM when it is used without writing.

The display device 105 for displaying data is, for example, a display device using a cathode ray tube, an EL panel, a liquid crystal panel or the like.

Input device 10 for inputting data and commands
6 is a keyboard, for example.

The auxiliary input device 107 for assisting the input of data and commands is, for example, a pointing device such as a mouse, a trackball or a joystick. Auxiliary input device 107
May be omitted, and in that case, by the input device 106,
The function of the auxiliary input device 107 may be supplemented.

The data processing device according to the present invention is
It may be in another form, for example, a parallel computer system having a plurality of CPUs, or a system used by a single user or a plurality of users at the same time.

FIG. 2 is a flow chart showing the flow of the entire processing in the data processing apparatus of one embodiment of the present invention. First, a window for a user to operate this data processing device is displayed on the display device 105 (110).
1). Then, it waits for an input from the user (1102).
FIG. 12 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of a window, the details of which will be described later. Input from the user is performed using the input device 106 or the auxiliary input device 107. When there is an input from the user, the operation is decided according to the input. When the portions 606a to 606e representing the buttons of the window are designated by the pointing device such as a mouse (1103), the button pressing process (1106) is performed. When the content display area 604 of the record is designated (1104), the content area pressing process (1107) is performed. When the end button 606e is instructed (110
In 5), the data processing device is terminated. The determination as to whether or not the end button 606e is instructed may be performed in the determination as to whether or not another button has been instructed (1103), and the end processing may be performed in the button pressing processing (1106). You can go.

FIG. 3 shows the button pressing process (11
It is a flowchart showing a flow of 06). When the search button 602 is instructed by the user (1201)
The search button pressing process (1202), the edit button 606a is instructed (1203), the edit button pressing process (1204) is instructed, and the save button 606b is instructed (1205). Button press processing (1
206), when the registration button 606c is instructed (1
207), the registration button pressing process (1208), and when the delete button 606d is instructed (1209),
The delete button pressing process (1210) is performed.

FIG. 4 shows the contents area pressing process (1
It is a flow chart showing the flow of (107). First,
It is determined whether or not the portion designated by the pointing device such as the mouse by the user is the portion of the character string marked with underline or the like (1301). If it is not the marked character string portion, this processing ends. If it is a part of the marked character string, the character string is extracted (130
2) The extracted character string is output to the search key input area 601 (1303) and the search process is performed (1304). The meaning of the marked character string will be described later.

FIG. 5 shows the retrieval process (1304) shown in FIG.
3 is a flowchart showing the flow of. First, a character string is extracted from the search key input area 601 (1401).
If there is no character string in the search key input area 601, (140
2), end without searching. Search key input area 60
If the character string exists in 1, the hash value is calculated from the character string (1403). Next, the hash table is referenced with the hash value as an index (1404), and it is determined whether or not the character string is registered (1405). If it is registered, a record having the character string as a search key is displayed (1406), and if it is not registered, the fact that it is not searched is displayed (1407).

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of a hash table of the data processing device according to the present invention. In this example,
Hash search is used as the search method. The entry word and the search key registered in a certain record are registered in the hash table shown in FIG. On the hash table,
The position where the entry word and the character string of the search key are registered is determined by a hash function. Hash function, for example, by computing the code of the target string,
Generate a natural number that can be uniquely determined from a character string. The entry word and the search key character string are registered in the hash table with the value calculated by the hash function as an index. In FIG. 6, for a character string “computer”, for example, a hash value of “1” is calculated by a hash function, and “1” is registered as an index in the hash table. Also, for the character string "calculator", the hash value "4" is calculated by the hash function,
“4” is registered in the hash table as an index.

FIG. 7 is a flow chart showing an example of a method for determining whether or not a character string of the content of a record includes an entry word and a search key held by the database. When the content of the retrieved record is displayed, the character string of the content is first decomposed into words (701). If the character string of the content part is Japanese, for example, it is decomposed into words using a morphological analysis method such as the longest match method, the minimum clause number method, or the maximum likelihood evaluation method. The set of words shown in FIG. 8 is an example of the result of morphological analysis of the content part of the record shown in FIG. Next, if a thesaurus is prepared, each decomposed word is searched by the thesaurus, and the resultant word is merged with each decomposed word. The individual words decomposed in this way are shown in FIG.
A search is performed using the hash table described in (704), and for the word existing in the hash table, for example, an underline is displayed so that the character string of the word can be distinguished from other character strings (706). . By repeating this operation for all the decomposed words, a mark such as an underline is added to the character string in the content part. Further, instead of all the decomposed words, only the words without particles etc. may be searched or marked.

FIG. 10 shows an example of the data structure of a record in the data processing apparatus of the embodiment of the present invention. A record consists of a headword, a text, and a search key, each of which is data representing a fixed-length or variable-length character string. The search key is, for example, a set of character strings separated by commas ",". The headword area may not be provided.

9 and 11 show examples of actual records. In FIG. 9, the entry word is “comp
“Uter”, its description in the text, and “computer, computer” in the search key. In FIG. 11, the entry word is “keyboard”, the text is its description, and the search key is “keyboard, computer, characters, input device”.

FIG. 12 shows an example of a screen when the data processing device according to the present invention is implemented on a personal computer, for example. FIG. 12 shows a state in which the records illustrated in FIGS. 9 and 11 are accumulated and the records illustrated in FIG. 9 are retrieved. The user performs a search by inputting, for example, "computer" in the search key input area 601, and pointing the search button 602 with a mouse or the like. Then, the entry word of the searched record is displayed in the entry word list 603, and the content thereof is displayed in the content display area 404. Although the entry word display area 605 is shown in FIG. 12, this may be omitted.

In the example shown in FIG. 12, underlining is displayed in the portion "computer", the portion "computer" and the portion "input device" in the content display area 604. This indicates the search key held by this data processing device. Of these, the character string "input device" is not the search key of the record shown in FIG. 9, that is, the record displayed in FIG. The character string "input device" is a search key for the record shown in FIG. That is, the underline displayed in the character string “input device” implies that there is another record having the search key “input device”, that is, the record illustrated in FIG. 11. It can be said that it shows. In this way, when the search key held by this data processing device is included in the body of a certain record, the character string can be distinguished from other characters by, for example, displaying an underline. This makes it easy for the user to find the search key and enables the hypertext to move between records.

FIG. 13 shows FIG. 9 (record 1 in FIG. 13).
And the implicit link state by the search key between the two records in FIG. 11 (record 2 in FIG. 13) is shown focusing on record 1. In the record 1 of FIG. 13, the character string “computer” enclosed by a broken line rectangle is registered as the search key of the record. That is, the character string "computer" is
It can be considered that this character string indicates the registered record 1 itself. In the figure, that state is indicated by a solid arrow. The same applies to the character string "calculator" enclosed by the broken-line rectangle in the record 1.

Further, the search key "computer" is also registered in the record 2 in FIG. That is, since the search key "computer" is not only the search key for record 1 but also the search key for record 2, there is an implicit link from the character string "computer" enclosed by the dashed rectangle of record 1 to record 2. Can be considered. In the figure, this state is indicated by a dashed arrow.

Further, the character string "input device" in the record 1 surrounded by a broken line rectangle is not registered as the search key of the record 1, but is registered as the search key of the record 2. Therefore, the character string “input device” surrounded by the broken line rectangle in the record 1 can be considered as an implicit link to the record 2. In the figure, this state is indicated by a dashed arrow.

FIG. 14 is a diagram showing the concept of an implicit link via the thesaurus. The character string “storage device” in the content part of the record 1 in FIG. 14 is first searched by the thesaurus and converted into the character string “memory”. Since the character string “memory” is registered as the search key of the record 2 in FIG. 14, the character string “storage device” of the record 1 is an implicit link to the record 2 by passing through the thesaurus. I can think. In this way, when the mark is added to the content character string of the record, by preparing the thesaurus, an implicit link can be realized even if the character string does not directly correspond to the search key.

Although one embodiment of the data processing apparatus according to the present invention has been described above in detail, the present invention is not limited to this embodiment. Various modifications and additions other than the above-described embodiments can be made within the scope of the present invention. For example, although the hash table is used as the search method in the above embodiment, a binary search tree may be used, or K
Full-text search such as MP search or BM search may be used, or the search may be realized by any other method.

[0033]

According to the present invention, when a content character string of a record includes an entry word and a search key held by the database, the character string is displayed so as to be distinguishable from other character strings. This allows the user to easily find the search key.

By this means, hypertext-like data movement can be realized without having link information,
In addition, navigation information for data search by the user can be provided.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a data processing device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing a schematic processing flow of the operation of the data processing device according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing an outline of an operation of button pressing processing in the processing flow of FIG.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing an outline of an operation of content area pressing processing in the processing flow of FIG.

5 is a flowchart showing an outline of operations of a search button pressing process in the process flow of FIG. 3 and a search process in the process flow of FIG.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of a hash table of the data processing device according to the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing a mark addition processing flow when displaying data.

8 is a diagram showing an example of a result of morpheme analysis of the content part of the record of FIG.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing an example of a record actually handled by the data processing device.

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an example of a data structure of a record handled by the data processing device.

FIG. 11 is a diagram showing an example of a record actually handled by the data processing device, similar to FIG.

FIG. 12 is a diagram showing an example of an operation screen of the data processing device.

FIG. 13 is a diagram showing a concept of an implicit link state between records.

FIG. 14 is a diagram showing a concept of an implicit link via a thesaurus.

[Explanation of symbols]

101 ... Central processing unit, 102 ... Read-only storage device, 103 ... Read / write storage device, 104 ... Secondary storage device, 105 ... Display device, 106 ... Input device, 107 ...
Auxiliary input device, 601 ... Search key input area, 602 ... Search button, 603 ... Headword list display area, 604 ...
Content display area, 605 ... Headword display area, 606a ...
Edit button, 606b ... Save button, 606c ... Register button, 606d ... Delete button, 606e ... End button

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of front page (72) Inventor Shinichiro Taniguchi 134YB, Kobe Town 134F Hodogaya-ku, Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture 13F Fuji Xerox Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Eiji Ishida 134YB Kobe-cho, Hodogaya-ku, Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture P East Tower 13F Fuji Xerox Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Yoshifumi Matsunaga 134YB Kobe-cho, Hodogaya-ku, Yokohama-shi, Kanagawa P East Tower 13F Fuji Xerox Co., Ltd.

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A database for storing one or a plurality of records each of which is a set of character string data and one or a plurality of search keys for searching the character string data, and character string data of a certain record. A first search means for searching whether or not the search key held by the database is included, and a character string representing the search key in the character string data of the record searched by the first search means. The data processing device, comprising: an identification unit that can identify the character string of No. 1; and a display unit that presents the character string that can be identified by the identification unit to the user. 2. An instructing unit that allows a user to instruct a character string that represents the identifiable search key, and a second searching unit that searches using the character string instructed by the instructing unit as a search key. The data processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising: