JPH10254679A - Method and device for managing data - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To manage data in consideration of not only the generation of respective data or update pint of time, but also their use states by using update-time data and printing-time data in combination and rearranging them. SOLUTION: A user selects a function for a rearranging, extracting, or retrieving command, etc., for data stored in a memory 140. Here, when those functions are commanded so as to be based on updated data and time data, processes based upon the updated date and time data are performed and when they are commanded so as to be based on print date and time data, processes based upon the print data and time data re performed. Then a group of data rearranged, extracted, and retrieved according to the process result, i.e., indicated process procedures is stored as process result data 143 in the memory 140 and at the same time, the process results are displayed on a display device 130. According to the displayed results, the user selects a function for rearranging, extracting, or retrieving those data.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a data management method suitable for a system that manages registration, update, printing, and the like of a large number of data, such as a database system and a file management OS such as a personal computer or a word processor. More particularly, the present invention relates to a data management method and apparatus capable of managing data in consideration of not only the time of creation but also the use status.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, systems such as a database system and a file management OS such as a personal computer / word processor which manage the registration, update, printing, etc. of a large number of data require a data name, data update date and time, and the like. Using the key as a key, data manipulation processing such as data rearrangement, data search, and data extraction can be executed in response to a user request or a system request.

For example, in a data processing device such as a personal computer or a word processor, the created data is stored in a storage medium such as a hard disk, a floppy disk, a magnetic disk, an optical disk, or a magnetic tape as necessary. It is common to print using. When storing the created data in a storage medium, a necessary drive name, a holder name, a path name, and the like are designated, and a unique data name is assigned and stored. Assuming that a floppy disk is selected as a drive for the sake of simplicity, assuming that only the root directory is set on the floppy disk, the updated (created) data is sequentially stored on the floppy disk. It will be remembered. Next, when attempting to read data from this floppy disk, the CPU reads data names from the root directory in response to a rearrangement command from the system, and sorts the read data names in the order of update date or time. Display on the display device in order of name. The user selects desired data while referring to this display.
In many cases, the order displayed on the display device can be selected as an option by the user, and the user can select the order in advance by name or
By designating the order of the update date and time, the CPU displays the read data on the display device in the designated order. The CPU reads the selected data from the floppy disk. The user instructs confirmation, update, or printing of the content of the data thus read through the screen.

When the user updates the read data and re-records the updated result on a floppy disk, the CPU sets the update date and time as well as the content updated by the user. Is also recorded on a floppy disk as part of the data. At this time, old data is replaced by new data. Also, if the user does not want to update the floppy disk, a warning screen usually displayed on the screen, for example, "The data has been updated. Can I exit without saving?" A warning screen is displayed. After the user confirms the warning screen, the updated data is not updated to the floppy disk, the processing is completed, and the screen is switched to, for example, a menu screen.

[0005] As an example in which the data is updated but the update to the floppy disk is not performed, a format commonly used as a so-called template can be considered. In these templates, required items are left blank, and after inputting necessary information there, printing is performed. After printing is completed,
This is because it is necessary to keep the original template on the floppy disk.

In some cases, only printing is required without updating data. For example, this is a case where address printing is performed from a list in an address book. Unless the address is changed, there is no need to update the data, so that after printing the address, the original data remains on the floppy disk.

The situation of the above-mentioned rearrangement processing is not only in a file management OS of a personal computer or a word processor, but also in a dedicated database system for managing a large amount of data.
The same is true.

[0008]

In the conventional data processing apparatus, the display order of the data names read from the storage medium is the order of the names or the order of the update date and time. Such data whose update date and time data on the storage medium is not updated is always treated as old data in the display of the update date and time order,
May not meet user's request. That is, in the case where the print request is frequently issued but the data is not updated, the display order of the data names is always located at the lower position despite the high printing frequency.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned problems, and has as its object the management of data not only at the time of creation or update of each data, but also in consideration of the use state of each data. It is an object of the present invention to provide a data management method and a data management device capable of performing the following.

[0010]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, for each of a large number of data, a step of automatically recording and saving a final update time point, and a step of receiving a predetermined data rearrangement instruction. A step of executing a data rearrangement process in response to the stored update point data as a key, and a step of executing a print process for the designated data in response to a predetermined data print command Each time a print process for any data is executed, the method further includes a step of automatically recording and saving the last print time of the data, By
In the data rearrangement process, the data management method is characterized in that the print time data is used as a key for the data rearrangement process in addition to the update time data.

The invention according to claim 2 of the present application has a data extraction process or a data search process in addition to the data rearrangement process.
2. The data management method according to claim 1, wherein, in addition to the update time data, the print time data is configured to be used as a key for the processing thereof.

The invention described in claim 3 of the present application is a means for automatically recording and storing the last update time of each of a large number of data, and storing the data in response to a predetermined data rearrangement command. A data management device having at least means for performing a data rearrangement process using the updated data at the time as a key, and a means for executing a print process for the designated data in response to a predetermined data print command. The apparatus is provided with a new means for automatically recording and storing the last printing time of the data each time a printing process for any data is executed, whereby the data rearrangement is performed. In the processing, in addition to the update time data, the print time data is configured to be used as a key for the data rearrangement process. The management system of the data to be.

[0013] The invention according to claim 4 of the present application has a data extraction process or a data search process in addition to the data rearrangement process.
4. The data management method according to claim 3, wherein, in addition to the update time data, the print time data is configured to be used as a key for the processing thereof.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a recording medium storing a program for causing a computer to function as each unit of the device according to the third or fourth aspect.

According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, in the method according to any one of the first to fifth aspects, the update or print time is a date and time of the update or print. It is in a device or a recording medium.

According to the first and third aspects of the present invention, the reordering process can be executed using both the update time data and the print time data. In addition, data management can be performed in consideration of the usage status. That is, for example, if the rearrangement is performed by using the update time data or the print time data alone, the data can be rearranged in the update order or the print order. If the rearrangement process is performed, it is possible to extract data that is old but is still used at present (for example, the above-described template and destination) in the order of creation.

According to the second or fourth aspect of the present invention, furthermore, a search process and an extraction process can be executed by using both the update time data and the print time data. The degree of freedom is further improved.

According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, when the update or printing is performed in consideration of the actual use situation of this type of data management system, in order to satisfy a later request, it is necessary to set the date and time "Would be sufficient.

[0019]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an embodiment of a data processing apparatus according to the present invention. In FIG. 1, a central processing unit 100 as a control unit includes an input device 110 such as a keyboard and a mouse as a peripheral device, a printing device 120, a display device 130, and a memory 1 as a storage device.
40 is generally controlled.

The memory 140 is constituted by a storage medium such as a hard disk, a floppy disk, and an optical disk. In this memory 140, in addition to the data main bodies 141-1 to 141-n, time data 142-1 to 142-n of the update date and time and the print date and time of the data are stored.
It is stored in association with each of the data bodies. Further, the memory 140 is further provided with an area for storing processing result data 143 as a result of data rearrangement, search, extraction, and the like.

The timer 150 is a circuit for generating current date and time data, and can be constituted by, for example, an electronic clock circuit for counting reference clocks and generating date and time data.

Next, the operation of the apparatus shown in FIG. 1 will be described. When a user makes a request to read data stored in the memory 140 from the input device 110, the central processing unit 100 reads the data in the memory 140 and displays a list of data names on the display device 130. The display order at this time will be described later.

The user selects one of a plurality of data listed on the input device 110. Then, the central processing unit 100 stores the data body 141-1 from the memory 140.
The designated data is read out and displayed on the display device 130.

In this state, the user updates the displayed data or makes a print request as necessary. When a print request is issued, the central processing unit executes a print process for data related to the print request, and causes the printing device 120 to print the data. Thereafter, the central processing unit 100 automatically updates the time data 142 relating to the data corresponding to the current date and time obtained from the timer 150 as the final print date and time.

As for the last update date and time constituting the time data 142, the date and time when an update request is made by the user is automatically set as the last update date and time. When new data is created, the time data 142 is updated with the creation date and time as the last update date and time.

In the data name list display performed by the central processing unit 100, priority is given by referring to the time data 142 based on the priorities of update date / time priority or print date / time priority specified by the user in advance. The data names are displayed in the order of the date and time information. Upon display, processing information of the display order is stored in the memory 140 as processing result data 143. At this time, for example, by specifying the range of the update date and time and the range of the print date and time, it is possible to use a search and extraction function for extracting only the corresponding data from the plurality of data, and thus the selection processing is performed. The data is also stored in the memory 140 as the processing result data 143.

Next, an example of a data management method performed by the data management device of FIG. 1 will be described with reference to the flowcharts of FIGS.

FIG. 2 shows that the data read from the memory 140 is updated, and the updated data is stored in the memory 14.
A flowchart showing the process for re-recording to 0 is shown. In the figure, when the processing is started, first, data to be processed is selected by the user, an update process is performed on the selected data, or new data is input (step 201). Thereafter, when the user requests the newly created or updated data to be stored in the memory 140, the central processing unit 100 stores the newly input or updated data body 141 in the memory 140 ( Step 20
2) Subsequently, the time data 142 is updated using the date and time information obtained from the timer 150 as update date and time data (step 203), and the process ends.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart for explaining the processing performed by the central processing unit 100 when a print request for the data body is issued. In the figure, when the processing is started, first, when the user makes a print request for the data body (step 301), the central processing unit 100 sets the date and time of printing the data to the timer 150.
From the memory 14 according to the date and time of the capture.
The last printing date and time constituting the time data stored in 0 is automatically updated (step 302), and thereafter, a known data printing process is executed to print the corresponding data while cooperating with the printing apparatus 120. (Step 303).
The process ends. At this time, if the data is newly created, the last print date and time is updated only when the user instructs to store the data in the memory 140.

As described above, new data is created or existing data is updated, and each time the new data is stored in the storage means 140, the last update date and time is automatically updated. Further, regardless of whether or not the existing data is updated, the last print date and time is automatically updated each time a print request is made.

Next, the flow of processing for reading out and displaying data from the memory 140 by using the time data 142 at which the last update date and time and the last print date and time have been updated will be described with reference to FIG.

FIG. 4 illustrates an operation in which the user displays the result of the primary search of a plurality of data stored in the memory 140 and further displays the result of the secondary search on the displayed result. Is shown.

First, the user selects functions such as rearrangement, extraction, and search command for data stored in the memory 140 (step 401). Here, these features
When it is instructed to be based on the update date and time data, processing based on the update date and time data is performed (step 40).
2) On the other hand, if it is instructed to be based on the print date and time data, processing based on the print date and time data is performed (step 403).

Next, the processed result, that is, the data group rearranged, extracted, and retrieved according to the designated processing procedure is stored in the memory 140 as processing result data 143 (step 404), and at the same time, the processing is performed. The result is displayed on the display device 130 (step 405).

Based on the displayed result, the user further:
Functions such as rearrangement, extraction, and search for these data are selected (step 406). Here, when the process related to the last print date and time is designated, the process based on the print date and time data is performed (step 407). When the process related to the update date and time is designated, the process based on the last update date and time data is performed. (Step 408).

The result of the processing is stored in the processing result data 143 (step 409), and the processing result is displayed on the display device 130 (step 410).

FIG. 5 specifically shows what sort of data can be rearranged by the data management apparatus to which the present invention is applied. In the figure, the order of data arrangement by the conventional data management device is also shown for comparison.

The operation procedure is as follows.
It is assumed that D is created in order, only data BC is printed at time 2, and data BD is updated at time 3. The upper part of the illustrated table shows the data arrangement order by the data management apparatus of the present invention, and the lower part shows the data arrangement order by the conventional data management apparatus. A circle number following the data name indicates a data update time, and an Arabic number indicates data print time.

First, when data ABCD is newly created at time 1, the data by the data management device of the present invention and the data by the conventional data management device are arranged in alphabetical order of data names in the same order.

Next, at time 2, a print request for the data BC is made, and after that, a command is issued to rearrange the data according to the last print date and time data. Since the last print date and time data has been updated, the data is rearranged in accordance with the updated order, and stored in the memory 140 as the processing result data 143. That is,
In the case of this embodiment, the printed data BC is positioned higher than the unprinted data AB. On the other hand, the conventional data management device does not have the data of the print date and time, so the data arrangement order is still ABCD.
Remains.

Next, when the data BD is updated at time 3, the last update date and time constituting the time data 142 is updated. Thereafter, when the data is ordered to be rearranged according to the last update date and time, the data rearranged at time 2 is further rearranged in the order of the latest update date and time. On the other hand, in the conventional method, only the sorting is performed in the order of the last update date and time. In this case, according to the conventional method, it can be seen that the data A that has never been updated or printed is positioned higher than the data C that has been printed once. In this regard, according to the data processing method of the present invention, it is understood that data A that has never been updated or printed is displayed as data having the lowest priority.

It is needless to say that which of the sorting based on the last update date and time and the sorting based on the last printing date and time is performed first is determined by the user. Although not described in the above embodiment, the types of data operations are not limited to the data rearrangement operation, and a conventionally known method such as a data search operation or a data extraction operation may be used. Needless to say, it can be appropriately adopted.

By using the data management method and apparatus of the present invention, for example, when printing using a template,
Since the last printing date and time is frequently updated each time printing is performed, if a rearranging operation is instructed using the last printing date and time as a key, such template data can be positioned at a higher order in the data arrangement order. . The same applies when printing an address from an address book. In particular, in address printing of direct mail or the like, the sorting operation by the conventional data management device always arranges the new customer data in the higher order, and does not always have the old customer in the upper order. However, in the present invention,
Customer data with a high printing frequency can be positioned at the top, and the usability is good.

[0044]

As is apparent from the above description, according to the present invention, the reordering process can be executed by using both the update time data and the print time data. In addition, data management can be performed in consideration of the usage status. That is, for example, if the rearrangement is performed by using the update time data or the print time data alone, the data can be rearranged in the update order or the print order. By performing the sorting process,
It is also possible to extract data that is old and still used at the time of creation (for example, the above-described template and destination) in the order of creation.

[Brief description of the drawings]

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

FIG. 2 is a flowchart schematically showing the contents of processing at the time of data printing performed in an embodiment of the data management device of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart schematically showing the content of a process at the time of data update performed in an embodiment of the data management device of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart schematically showing the content of processing at the time of data operation (for example, at the time of data rearrangement operation) in the embodiment of the data management device of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a table showing a data arrangement order as a data rearrangement result in the data management device of the present invention in comparison with a data arrangement order as a data rearrangement result in the conventional data management device.

[Explanation of symbols]

 REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 100 Central processing unit 110 Input device 120 Printing device 130 Display device 140 Memory 150 Timer

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. A step of automatically recording and storing the last update time of each of a large number of data, and arranging the data by using the stored update time data as a key in response to a predetermined data rearrangement command. Performing a replacement process; and performing a print process for the designated data in response to a predetermined data print command.
A data management method comprising at least a step of automatically recording and saving a final printing time point of the data each time a printing process for any data is performed, the method being newly provided. Accordingly, in the data rearranging process, the printing time data is configured to be used as a key for the data rearranging process in addition to the update time data. Method. 2. A data extraction process or a data search process in addition to the data rearrangement process. In these processes, in addition to the update time data, the printing time data is also used in the processing. 2. The data management method according to claim 1, wherein the data management method is configured to be able to be used as a key for the data. 3. A means for automatically recording and storing the last update time of each of a large number of data, and arranging the data by using the stored update time data as a key in response to a predetermined data rearrangement command. A data management device having at least a unit for executing a replacement process and a unit for executing a print process for data specified in response to a predetermined data print command. A means for automatically recording and saving the final printing time of the data each time the printing processing relating to the data is executed is newly provided, so that in the data sorting processing, in addition to the update time data, A data management device configured to use the print time data as a key for a data rearrangement process. 4. A data extraction process or a data search process in addition to the data rearrangement process, and in these processes, in addition to the update time data, the printing time data is also used in the processing. 4. The data management method according to claim 3, wherein the data management method is configured to be used as a key for the data. 5. A recording medium on which a program for causing a computer to function as each unit of the device according to claim 3 or 4 is recorded. 6. The method, apparatus, or recording medium according to claim 1, wherein the update or print time is a date and time of the update or print.