JPH04286073A - Data processing equipment and its data retrieval method - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] This bulletin contains application data before electronic filing, so abstract data is not recorded.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

0001

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a data processing device and a data retrieval method thereof, and more particularly to a data processing device and a data retrieval method suitable for quickly retrieving target data from a large amount of data. .

0002

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION As office automation equipment becomes more widespread, companies are promoting paperless operations. With this shift to paperless technology, the documents handled by individuals (including program data) have become electronic documents created using data processing devices (hereinafter referred to as document creation devices) such as dedicated word processors and personal computers, and the amount of documents handled has also increased. I am following the path of When editing documents created in the past, you can print them out on paper and retrieve them from the file to search/search.
Rather than editing, it has become common to load electronic documents into a document creation device that has editing and search functions, and perform search and editing operations on the screen. When performing this editing work, since there is no paper printout, it is first necessary to search for the part to be edited on the screen of the document creation device.

[0003] In recent years, division of labor has progressed in office processing, and there are many cases where documents created by others are edited. In such cases, if there are no clear instructions such as what line and what character to modify in the document, the editor will have no choice but to edit while looking at the document contents point by point, and the editing process will be delayed. It will take a long time. Therefore, in the document creation device,
Document search functionality becomes essential.

[0004] Conventionally, when performing this search, in ambiguous situations where the search keyword or target line number is unknown, the document search is performed by turning pages in units of lines or screens. Incidentally, as related to the prior art, there is Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 62-89993.

[0005]

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] The above-mentioned prior art does not take into account the case where the search keyword or the line number to be edited is not clearly known, and the operator who performs the editing work has to edit the document line by line or line by line. It is necessary to search for the part to be edited by tracing the screen one by one. Furthermore, if the display screen of the document creation device has only 10 lines, the efficiency of document retrieval by turning pages on each screen will be low. Also, to increase search speed, if you turn the page every 20 lines when the number of displayed lines is 10,
When a portion of the screen is not displayed, it is necessary to change the key operation to scroll line by line when approaching the search area to further narrow down the search area. As mentioned above, conventionally, "search keyword" and "target line number"
If there is no clear search target such as
Furthermore, there are problems in terms of usability, such as the need for complicated key operations.

[0006] The purpose of the present invention is to solve the above problems.
To provide a data processing device and a search method thereof, which can efficiently perform ambiguous searches regardless of the number of lines displayed on a display screen and by using only one pattern of key operations.

[0007]

[Means for solving the problem] The above purpose is to make it possible to search for a part whose location is ambiguous in a large volume of electronic documents by turning the pages while looking at the display screen, and to search for a part whose location is ambiguous in a large amount of electronic documents. When searching in the direction, display intermediate data between the closest data position of the previously displayed data in the forward direction and the position of the currently displayed data, and when searching backwards from the currently displayed data, This is achieved by displaying data intermediate between the closest data position of the previously displayed backward data and the currently displayed data position.

[0008]

[Operation] The operator looks at the data displayed on the screen and instructs to search only whether the desired data is before or after the data. When a search direction is input, it jumps to an intermediate position in that direction and waits for another search direction input instruction at that position. When a search direction is input, the program jumps to an intermediate position in that direction. By searching in this way, the location of data whose location is ambiguous can be narrowed down, and data can be searched quickly and easily.

[0009]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. 1000 created by word processor
There is a document file of a novel manuscript that has 0 lines, and an example of the work to be performed when correcting a part of this document will be explained. FIG. 2 shows an outline of document data of up to 10,000 lines. Assume that this document file is read by the document creation device, and that the cursor position immediately after reading is at the beginning (first line) of the document. Also, assume that you want to modify the part that introduces the characters around line 940 in this document.

[0010] When reading a certain part of a document, it is rare to remember in detail how much earlier or later the target part is, but simply to intuitively remember how much earlier or later the target part is. Often it's just a memory. Therefore, in this embodiment, a search method that follows this human sense is adopted. In other words, first the beginning of the document is displayed, and then if the operator presses the "↓" key because the destination is after that, the intermediate position (5000th line) up to the last line (10000th line) of the document is displayed. View the document. Next, if the "↑" key is pressed as it is before the 5000th line, 5000
The document at the intermediate position (2500th line) between the 0th line and the 0th line is displayed. Further, when the operator determines that the line is before the 2500th line and presses the "↑" key, the intermediate position (1250th line) between the 2500th line and the 0th line is displayed. Also, if the operator determines that it is after the 2500th line and presses the "↓" key, the intermediate position between the 2500th line and the 5000th line (
3750th line) is displayed. In this embodiment, the value of the pointer is stored and used in order to cause the data processing apparatus to execute the above-described process in response to the operator's page turning key operation.

FIG. 1 is a structural diagram of a pointer storage area. The storage area stores line number information at the time when a page turning operation is performed. Line number 1 indicating the first line of the document is stored in area 1a, and line number 1 of the last line of the document is stored in area 1b when the document is read. Area 1c
From now on, the screen pointer (
The values of row numbers) are stored sequentially. As a result, when turning a page, the pointer closest to the current pointer can be found by searching the information in this pointer storage area.

[0012] Since only the line number at the beginning of the line and the line number at the last line are stored in the pointer storage area, the line number closest to the bottom when turning the page for the first time is the line number at the last line (
10,000 lines). Therefore, in this embodiment, the next pointer to move is located at line 5000, which is between the current line and the last line, and the portion at line 5000 is displayed.

[0013] The operator looks at the displayed document, determines that the area to be corrected is further forward, and then operates the page turning key in the upward direction. The device side searches the pointer storage area to determine the next display position. The value stored in the storage area that is closest to the current row number in the upward direction is the stored value in area 1a in Figure 1, so
The process moves to line 2500, which is between the value stored in area 1a and the current line number (5000), and the corresponding document is displayed. At this time, the current line number (5000) is stored in the pointer storage area 1c shown in FIG.

[0014] The operator looks at the displayed document and determines that the area to be corrected is further forward, and again operates the key to turn the page upward. The device side searches the pointer storage area to determine the next display position. The value stored in the storage area in the upward direction closest to the current row number is the value in area 1a in Figure 1, so area 1
125, which is between the value of a and the current row number (2500)
Move to line 0 and display the corresponding document. At this time, the current line number (
2500) is stored.

When the operator looks at the displayed document and determines that the area to be corrected is further forward, he again operates the key to turn the page upward. The device side searches the pointer storage area to determine the next display position. The value stored in the storage area in the upward direction that is closest to the current row number is the value in area 1a in Figure 1, so it is midway between the value in area 1a and the current row number (1250). Move to line 625 and display the corresponding document. At this time, the current line number (1250) is stored in the pointer storage area 1e shown in FIG.

The operator looks at the displayed document and determines that the area to be corrected is further back, and then operates a key to turn the page downward. The device side searches the pointer storage area to determine the next display position. The value stored in the storage area in the downward direction that is closest to the current row number is the value in area 1e in Figure 1, so it is midway between the value in area 1e and the current row number (625). 93
Move to line 6 and display the corresponding document. Since there were 940 lines to be corrected, the document to be corrected is displayed on the screen at this point.

Next, a specific processing procedure on the data processing device that implements the above-mentioned processing will be explained. FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing the main processing procedure. First, in the initialization process 3a, various variables and memory areas for determining/controlling operations are initialized. In the document file reading process 3b, the document data to be edited specified by the user is read from the storage device. In the final line number acquisition process 3c, a process is executed to check how many lines of data the read document consists of. Edit/search processing 3d
Then, editing processing such as modifying/creating document data and searching for specific characters or character strings in document data are performed.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the detailed procedure of the initialization process 3a. First, the line number storage area is initialized in step 4a. And next step 4b
Now, initialize the reading area in memory for document data. Finally, in step 4c, each variable area used on the document creation system is initialized, and the process returns to the main process shown in FIG.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the detailed procedure of the document file reading process 3b shown in FIG. First, in step 5a, a document data file specified by the user to be read is opened. Next step 5b
Next, check whether the open process was performed normally or not. If the open process was not performed normally, the system is terminated. If the document file is opened normally, proceed to step 5c and open 1 from the document file.
Read data character by character. Then, the read characters are set in the document reading area on the memory (step 5d). In the next step 5e, it is checked whether the read character indicates the end of the document data. If the read data is the last character of the document data, the process advances to step 5g, and the document opened in step 5a is checked. The file is closed and the process returns to the main process shown in FIG. If the read character is not the last of the document data, the process proceeds from step 5e to step 5f, increments the buffer pointer indicating the writing position on the memory for the next reading by one, and returns to step 5c.

FIG. 6 shows the last line number acquisition process 3 shown in FIG.
3 is a flowchart showing the detailed procedure of step c. First, in step 6a, a search pointer indicating the document data area read into the memory is initialized, and at the same time, a variable area for storing the last line number is initialized. In the next step 6b, one character of data is read from the document data on the memory at the position indicated by the search pointer. Then, in step 6c, it is checked whether the data read in step 6b is the final data of the document data, and if it is the final data, the process branches to step 6g and the current last line counter is set. The value is stored in the position of the pointer storage area 1b shown in FIG. 1, and the process returns to the main process shown in FIG. It is checked whether the character read in step 6b is a character indicating the end of a line. If the character does not indicate the end of the line, the process jumps to step 6f; if it is the end of the line, the process goes to step 6e, and since there is an end of line character, the counter indicating the last line number is incremented by 1, and then the process goes to step 6f. . In step 6f, the search pointer used when reading the document data on the memory is incremented by 1, and then the process returns to step 6b.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing the detailed procedure of the editing/search processing 3d shown in FIG. First step 7
In step a, one screen worth of documents is displayed on the display screen. In this display process, data for the maximum number of lines that can be displayed on the screen starting from the current line number position is read out from the document data in the memory and displayed. The value of the line number is updated by document editing processing or search processing. Furthermore, the display is performed starting from the first character of the data in the line indicated by the line number. The next step 7b is key input processing, in which input data from the input device is monitored, and if there is input data, the data information is returned as a return value. Step 7c checks the key input data returned in step 7b and confirms that the data is editable/editable.
If the data indicates the end of the search process, the process returns to the main process in FIG. If the data does not indicate the end of the editing/search process, steps 7c to 7d
The process proceeds to step 7b, and it is checked whether the key input data returned in step 7b is key data indicating a search. If the key data indicates a search, the process advances to step 7f. If the key data does not indicate a search, the process proceeds to step 7e, where document data editing processing is performed. In this editing process, processes such as document creation, modification, printing, and writing to a storage device are performed.
Return to step 7b. In step 7f, it is checked whether the input key data indicating the search indicates a downward search or an upward search. If the key data indicates an upward search, proceed to step 7h and execute upward search processing; if the key data indicates a downward search, proceed to step 7h.
Go to g to execute downward search processing. After completing these processes 7g and 7h, the same process step 7i as step 7a is performed, and the process returns to step 7b.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing the detailed procedure of the downward search process 7g. In step 8a,
Store the last line number in the pointer save area. As the final row number used here, the value stored in area 1b in FIG. 1 is used. In step 8b, stored data is read from the pointer storage area shown in FIG. The reading is performed in the order of area 1a, area 1b, and area 1c. However, only one data is read in one read process. In step 8c,
It is checked whether the data read in step 8b is the final data in the pointer storage area of FIG. 1. If it is the final data, the process advances to step 8g, and if it is not the final data, the process advances to step 8d. In step 8d, a range check of the data read out in step 8b is performed. If the value of the read data is greater than or equal to the data value of the pointer save area and the value of the read data is greater than or equal to the value of the current line number, the process skips step 8e and returns to step 8b. If this condition is met, step 8e is performed and then the process returns to step 8b. Step 8
At e, the value of the read data is stored in the pointer save area. In step 8g, the value of the current line number is stored in the empty area of the pointer storage area in FIG. In the next step 8f, the current line number and the value in the pointer save area are added, the result is divided by "2", and the value is stored in the line number storage area as a new line number value.
Returning to the main processing in FIG.

FIG. 9 shows upward search processing 7 shown in FIG.
12 is a flowchart showing the detailed procedure of step h. First, in step 9a, "1" is stored in the pointer save area. In the next step 9b, stored data is read from the pointer storage area shown in FIG. The reading order is as follows: area 1a, area 1b, area 1c. However, only one data is read in one read process. In step 9c, it is checked whether the data read out in step 9b is the final data in the pointer storage area of FIG. 1. If it is not the final data, the process proceeds to step 9d, and if it is the final data, the process proceeds to step 9g. In step 9d, a range check of the data read out in step 9b is performed. If the value of the read data is less than or equal to the data value of the pointer save area and the value of the read data is less than or equal to the value of the current line number, the value of the read data is stored in the pointer save area ( After step 9e), return to step 9b, and if the conditions are not met, return directly to step 9b. In step 9g, the value of the current line number is stored in the empty area of the pointer storage area in FIG. 1, and the process proceeds to step 9f. In this step 9f, the value obtained by adding the current line number and the value in the pointer save area and dividing the result by 2 is stored in the line number storage area as a new line number value. Then, the process returns to the main process in FIG.

[0024]

According to the present invention, it takes an average of 14 key operations to find a search string in a document of 10,000 lines, for example. On the other hand, when turning one page at a time as in the conventional method, the number of turns is 400 times on average, so the effect of using the present invention is high.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the structure of a pointer storage area used in an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic explanatory diagram of a search method in an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing the processing procedure of main processing.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing detailed steps of the initialization process shown in FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing detailed steps of the document file reading process shown in FIG. 3;

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing detailed steps of the final line number acquisition process shown in FIG. 3;

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing detailed steps of the editing/search process shown in FIG. 3;

FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing detailed steps of the downward document search process shown in FIG. 7;

FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing detailed steps of the upward document search process shown in FIG. 7;

[Explanation of symbols]

1a, 1b, 1c, 1d, 1e...Pointer storage areas.

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A storage means for storing the history of the value of a pointer indicating the first and last position of a read electronic document and the position of the document displayed on the screen, and the value of the pointer indicating the position of the document currently displayed. calculating means for calculating the intermediate value between the value stored in the storage means closest to the search direction of the search instruction input; A data processing device comprising display means for displaying a document on a screen. [Claim 2] In a data search method in which a portion of a large-volume electronic document whose location is ambiguous is searched by turning the pages while looking at the display screen, when searching forward from the currently displayed data. , displays the intermediate data between the closest data position of the previously displayed forward data and the currently displayed data position, and when searching backward from the currently displayed data, the previously displayed data position is displayed. A data search method characterized by displaying data intermediate between the closest data position of backward data and the currently displayed data position.