JPH07129597A - Database retrieving device - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] [Object] The present invention is a database in which a user can specify a search condition while referring to information of data stored in the database without learning the search condition description grammar in advance for the database search. An object is to provide a search device. According to an embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a database search device for inputting a request from a user using a pointing device, and a data acquisition device for acquiring desired data from a database 200 based on an input search condition. 120, acquired data discriminating means 130 for classifying the acquired data into an attribute of a numerical data type and an attribute of another data type according to the attribute, and a statistic for calculating a statistic of an attribute value of the numerical data type. The amount calculation means 140 and the display means 150 for displaying the statistical amount in a graphic form and displaying the graphic amount-processed statistical amount, a list of attributes of the database 200, and a list of attribute values included in other types of attributes. Have and.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a database search device, and more particularly to a database search device for designating database search conditions when searching for desired data from a database. In particular, the present invention relates to a database search device that can be used by a user who is not familiar with computer or software grammars to search a database under various search conditions.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art FIG. 10 shows the configuration of a conventional database search system, in which a database 200 for storing data to be searched, a keyboard 380 for the user to input search conditions, and information for the user are displayed. The display unit 390 and the data acquisition unit 320 that acquires data from the database 200 using the search condition input by the user are included.

FIG. 11 is a diagram for explaining a conventional database search system in which a user inputs a search condition for searching a database from a keyboard. The database 200, a keyboard 380 for the user to input the search condition, A data acquisition unit 32 that acquires data from the database 200 using the search condition input by the user
0 and a display unit 390 that displays the data acquired by the data acquisition unit 320. In the figure, the database 200 is a database "sales of home appliances" regarding sales of home electric appliances, and has a customer name, a product name, and a sales amount as attributes.

When a user obtains desired data from the database 200, a file name, for example, is input as a database identifier (ID), and a set of attribute and attribute value is input as a data search condition. Figure 1
For example, when the user searches the “home appliance sales” database 200 described in No. 1 for data in which the product name matches “TV”, the database ID and the search condition are specified as follows. Database ID: "Sales of home appliances" Search condition 1: (Attribute name = "Product name") Search condition 2: (Attribute value = "TV") Search condition 3: Search condition 1 AND Search condition 2 Use database 200
You can search for data whose product name matches "TV". In addition, according to another expression (a left side represents an attribute name and a right side represents an attribute value of an attribute corresponding to the attribute name), the condition obtained by the AND operation of the search condition 3 in the above example is a product The name matches the condition that "TV" can be described.

Further, when the user searches for "data relating to home electric appliances whose sales are 20,000 or more and less than 60,000 and their customer names", database ID: "sales of home appliances" search condition 1: (attribute name = "sales High ”) Search condition 2: (attribute value ≥ 20000) AND (attribute value ≤ 60000)
) Search condition 3: Enter search condition 1 AND search condition 2. This search condition 3 is “Sales is 20,000
Above, and sales are less than 60,000 ". The data acquisition unit 220 determines that “sales of 20,000 or more,
And the sales amount is less than or equal to 60,000 ”are acquired. The display unit 390 is the data acquisition unit 32.
Display the search results obtained at 0.

[0006] In order to know more detailed data, for example, data on sales of the product name "TV", database ID: "sales of home appliances" search condition 1: (attribute name = "product name") search condition 2: (Attribute value = "TV") Search condition 3: Search condition 1 AND Search condition 2 Search condition 4: (Attribute name = "Sales") Search condition 5: (Attribute value ≥ 20000) AND (Attribute value ≤ 60000
) Search condition 6: Search condition 4 AND Search condition 5 Search condition 7: Search condition 3 AND Search condition 6 is input to search the database.

As described above, in the conventional database retrieval system, the user uses the keyboard 380 to input the retrieval condition in the form of the retrieval condition expression including the attribute name or the attribute value. Further, the result of the search is output on the display screen using a character string in a table format or the like.

In recent years, with the development of personal computers and the like, a user-oriented man-machine interface (MMI) has been provided to various application software by using a graphical user interface (GUI) including a graphical display device and a mouse. The search condition expression for database search is input as a character string from the keyboard.

[0009]

However, in the database search device according to the conventional technique, when the user specifies the search condition for obtaining the desired data, the conditional expression is created according to a predetermined grammar. Needs to learn the grammar for describing conditional expressions in advance. In addition, the user needs to input the key name selected from the attribute name, the above conditional expression including the attribute value, or the attribute value in the desired attribute of the database from the keyboard, so to properly use the database, It is also necessary to become familiar with the content of the data contained in the database, such as the type of data stored in the database and the key data for searching the stored data.

In view of the above problems of the prior art, the present invention learns the description grammar of the search condition expression of the database in advance when the user searches for and obtains desired data from the database, and An object of the present invention is to provide a database search device capable of designating a search condition while referring to detailed information of data stored in a database without being familiar with detailed contents of data stored in the database.

[0011]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the principle of the present invention.

The database searching apparatus of the present invention uses a device having a pointing function to input a request for information from a user, and a database search condition input from the input unit 110. A data acquisition unit 120 that acquires the data desired by the user, and an acquisition data determination unit that classifies the data acquired by the data acquisition unit 120 into a numerical data type attribute and other data type attributes according to the attribute. 130, a statistic amount calculation means 140 for calculating a statistic amount of an attribute value included in a numerical data type attribute, a statistic amount calculated by the statistic amount calculation means 140 is subjected to a graphic processing, and the statistic quantity subjected to the graphic processing. Statistic display means 152 for displaying and attribute value list display means for displaying a list of attribute values included in other types of attributes And a 54 and a display unit 150 for displaying a list of attributes in the database.

Further, in the database retrieval apparatus of the present invention, the statistical quantity calculating means 140 calculates the frequency distribution of the appearance frequency of the attribute value included in the numerical type attribute, and the statistical quantity displaying means 1
52 displays the frequency distribution calculated by the statistic calculation means 140 as a frequency distribution chart by graphic processing, and is used as a search condition from the range of the attribute value of the frequency distribution chart displayed by the statistic display means 152. Value range is input means 11
It is characterized by being selected by 0.

[0014]

With the database search apparatus of the present invention, a list of attributes of the database 200 is displayed, and the user is allowed to select an attribute using a device having a pointing function such as a mouse without using the keyboard, and the attribute is selected by the user. These attributes are classified into numeric data type attributes and other data type attributes. If this classified attribute is a numeric data type, the statistical value of the attribute value included in the attribute is calculated, the calculation result is displayed graphically, and the range of possible values of the attribute value desired by the user is displayed. To select. On the other hand, when the classified attributes are other data types, the attribute value list of the attributes is displayed and the user is allowed to select a desired attribute value. As a result, the user selects a desired attribute from the information displayed on the display unit 150 by the input unit 110, and further sets the range of the attribute value displayed graphically or the condition for the attribute value from the displayed attribute values. It is possible to select and specify a database search condition for searching for desired data. Therefore, when the user specifies the search condition,
It is not necessary to create a conditional expression according to a predetermined grammar and input this conditional expression from the keyboard, and further, it is not necessary to know in advance the detailed contents of the database such as the statistics of attribute values or the list of attribute values.

[0015]

[Example] When a user searches for and outputs necessary information from a database in response to an information request from a user, a pointing device is used as a search condition for a user to search for desired data from information displayed on a graphic display device. An embodiment of the database retrieval device according to the present invention designated by the following will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the configuration of a database search system according to an embodiment of the present invention. In order to search for necessary information from the database 200 and a database 200 for the user to store the information to be searched. It comprises a graphical user interface (hereinafter referred to as GUI) 210 which is an input / output device to be used, and a database search device 220 which searches for and outputs necessary information from the database 200 in response to an information request from the user.

The GUI 210 according to one embodiment of the present invention is
It is composed of a high resolution bitmap display 212 for displaying characters and graphic information, and a mouse 214 which is a pointing device for indicating a position on the screen.

Further, the database search apparatus 220 according to the embodiment of the present invention includes a data acquisition unit 230 for acquiring data from the database 200 according to a user's input via the GUI 210, and a database 200 from the database 200 according to a user's input. An acquisition data discriminating unit 240 that determines whether the attribute of the acquired data is a numeric data type or another data type, and the minimum value, the maximum value, the average value, the median value, and the frequency distribution of the attribute values of the numeric data type. , Variance, standard deviation, deviation value, normal distribution, binomial distribution, and the like, a statistic calculation unit 250, a statistic result display unit 262 that displays statistic calculation results, and attributes in the database 200. A display unit 26 having an attribute list display unit 266 for displaying a list of attribute values and an attribute value list display unit 264 for displaying a list of attribute values included in a predetermined attribute. Consisting of.

FIG. 3 shows a display unit 26 according to an embodiment of the present invention.
The statistic calculation result display part 262 of 0 is shown. In the same figure, a title 282 displaying the type of statistics and attribute name
And a graphical statistic 284 that displays a statistic that has been graphically processed (for example, a bar graph), an attribute value scale 286 that indicates a range of attribute values corresponding to the horizontal axis of the statistic diagram, and a user attributes An area (hereinafter referred to as a slider box) 288 for designating a desired value range from the value range is displayed.

In the database 200 used in the embodiment of the present invention, the attribute names are "customer name", "product name", and
It is a “home appliance sales” database consisting of three attributes of “sales”, and the attribute value of “customer name” is “A”,
"B" and "C" are included, and the attribute value of "product name" is
"TV", "refrigerator" and "radio" are included, and the attribute value of "sales" is "1000000", "500000", "15".
"00000" and "200000" are included.

Next, the operation of the database search device 220 according to the embodiment of the present invention shown in FIG. 2 will be described in detail.
FIG. 4 is a flow chart for explaining an outline of search condition designation in the database search device according to the embodiment of the present invention.

In the following description, it is assumed that the database to be searched in the embodiment of the present invention has already been selected, and it is not necessary to select the database again in the process of specifying the search conditions.

Step 100) The data acquisition unit 230 acquires a database attribute list, that is, "customer name", "commodity name" and "sales" from the database 200 and displays them on the attribute list display unit 266 of the display unit 260. The data format (eg, display position, format, display data) is converted and displayed on the bitmap display 212.

Step 110) The user designates the attribute specified as the search condition from the database attribute list displayed on the bitmap display 212 by the mouse 214.
Use to select. The data acquisition unit 230 notified of the selected information acquires the attribute value of the corresponding attribute from the database 200.

Step 120) Acquired data discrimination section 240
Is the data acquisition unit 23 based on the attribute specified by the user.
Whether the data type of the attribute acquired in 0 is a numeric data type (for example, when "sales" is selected as an attribute),
Is it a data type other than that, such as a character type (the attribute is
If it is a data type other than the numeric data type, it is determined in step 150.
Proceed to.

(Step 130) Since the data type of the attribute is a numerical data type, the statistic calculation unit 250 uses the attribute value acquired by the data acquisition unit 230 to calculate the statistic amount (minimum value, maximum value, Mean, median, frequency distribution, variance,
The standard deviation, the deviation value, the normal distribution, the binomial distribution, etc. are calculated, and any statistic (for example, frequency distribution) is output to the statistical result display unit 262. The statistical result display unit 262 is
The statistic is converted into a display data format, a slider box 288 for the user to specify the range of attribute values is added to the display data, and the bitmap display 212 is displayed.
Output to.

Step 140) The user refers to the statistical value of the attribute value displayed on the bitmap display 212 and selects a desired attribute value condition from the range of the attribute value displayed in the slider box 288 with the mouse 214. Then (for example, click the mouse button at the minimum of the range,
Hold the button down, move to the maximum value in the range, release the button, etc.). The data acquisition unit 230 that has been notified of the specified attribute value range acquires from the database 200 data that falls within the specified attribute value range, and acquires the acquired data, that is, the search, through the attribute list display unit 266. The attribute list in which the created data is marked by shading is output to the bitmap display 212.

(Step 150) Since the attribute data type is a data type other than numerical data, a list of attribute values is converted into character string data, which is converted into a display data format and output to the bitmap display 212.

Step 160) The user refers to the list of attribute values displayed on the bit map display 212 and selects the condition of the desired attribute value with the mouse 214 (for example, the desired attribute value is displayed. Mouse 21 where
Click (4) to specify. The data acquisition unit 230 notified of the specified attribute value acquires the data having the specified attribute value from the database 200. Through the attribute list display unit 266, the acquired data, that is, the attribute list in which the retrieved data is marked by shading is output to the bitmap display 212.

(Step 170) When a new attribute is added to the search condition, the process returns to step 110. If it is not necessary to specify additional search conditions, the search condition specification ends.

When returning from step 170 to step 110, it is possible to narrow down the search data by continuing the processing while leaving the search results up to immediately before, while deleting the search results up to immediately before newly creates attributes. The selection of can be started.

The search condition specifying method according to the embodiment of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the search condition specifying screen.

FIG. 5 shows an initial state of the condition designation screen according to an embodiment of the present invention, in which a list of database attributes is displayed. At this stage, any of the attributes "customer name", "product name", and "sales" can be selected. Here, the mouse 214 clicks on the screen where the attribute “product name” is displayed.

FIG. 6 shows a condition designation screen according to an embodiment of the present invention. The figure shows a state in which the attribute “product name” is selected and the attribute value list of the attribute “product name” is displayed in a pull-down menu format. Since the data type of the attribute value of the attribute "Product name" is not a numeric data type but a character type,
Display a list of attribute values in table format. When the mouse 214 is moved, the inverted part (“TV” in FIG. 6) in the attribute value list moves, and the user can select a desired attribute value. When the button of the mouse 214 is released, the attribute value is selected. By such user operation, FIG.
In, search condition 1: (attribute name = “product name”) search condition 2: (attribute value = “TV”) search condition 3: search condition 1 AND search condition 2 are specified as search conditions.

FIG. 7 shows a condition designation screen according to an embodiment of the present invention, in which a list of database attributes obtained as a result of searching the database under the above-mentioned search conditions is displayed with the data portion corresponding to the search conditions being shaded. It shows the state of being performed.

FIG. 8 shows a condition designation screen according to an embodiment of the present invention. In the same figure, the attribute "sales" is selected in the initial screen of the database attribute list display. Since the data type of the attribute "sales" is a numerical data type, the statistic is calculated and the result is displayed on the screen. In one embodiment of the present invention, the frequency distribution of the appearance frequency for each amount of sales is obtained as a statistic and the distribution chart is displayed.
Further, below the distribution map, a slider box 430 for the user to specify the range of the attribute value of sales and the mouse 214 is displayed. In the figure, the user's designation of the range of 50 to 300 is indicated by a shaded display in the slider box. In the figure, search condition 4: (attribute name = "sales") search condition 5: (attribute value ≥ 500000) AND (attribute value ≤ 300000
0) Search condition 6: Search condition 4 AND Search condition 5 is specified as the search condition.

FIG. 9 shows a condition designation screen according to an embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, using the above search condition 3,
This shows a state in which the attribute “sales” is further selected from the database attribute list display screen in which the data whose “product name” is “TV” has already been retrieved. Since the data type of the attribute "Sales" is a numerical data type, the statistic is calculated and the result is displayed on the screen. The target data for calculating the statistic is the data whose product name is "TV". Limited to In one embodiment of the present invention, the frequency distribution for each amount of sales is obtained as a statistic and a distribution chart is displayed. further,
Below the distribution chart, a slider box 288 for the user to specify the sales attribute value range and the mouse 214.
Is displayed. In the figure, search condition 1: (attribute name = "product name") search condition 2: (attribute value = "TV") search condition 3: search condition 1 AND search condition 2 search condition 4: (attribute name = "sales High ”) Search condition 5: (attribute value ≥ 500000) AND (attribute value ≤ 300000
0) Search condition 6: Search condition 4 AND Search condition 5 Search condition 7: Search condition 3 AND Search condition 6 is equivalent to being specified as the search condition.

In the above description of the embodiment of the present invention,
The case where the data retrieval process is executed at the same time when the data acquisition unit acquires the data from the database has been described as an example. However, a method of arranging the portion for searching the database separately from the data acquisition unit is also possible.

Further, the structure of the GUI 210 is not limited to the embodiment of the present invention, and for example, a character display or a graphic display having a low resolution can be used as the display device. Also,
As a pointing device for designating a position on the screen, it is possible to use an external device such as a dial or a slider, or a cursor movement on the screen by operating a key on a keyboard.

In one embodiment of the present invention, the search condition is specified only by using the pointing device, but the method of inputting the search condition expression by using the keyboard and the input by the pointing device may be used together. It is possible. For example, although the search condition 5 is specified by the slider box on the screen and the mouse operation, a keyboard input box for the search condition expression is displayed together with the display of the slider box, and this input box is displayed by the mouse. When clicked, the search condition expression input from the keyboard is accepted.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the slider box is used to specify the range of the attribute value, but the present invention is not limited to the slider box, and any method capable of specifying the range may be used. It is possible to replace it with a method such as clicking a button for increasing or decreasing a numerical value with a mouse, displaying a circular dial and rotating it to specify a range.

[0042]

As described above, according to the database search apparatus of the present invention, the user does not need to specify a search condition such as a search condition expression using a keyboard, so that the computer usage method and the conditional expression description grammar can be changed. It does not require learning and contributes to the removal of obstructive factors in pervading computing by users.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a principle configuration diagram of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram of a database search system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram of a statistical result display unit according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is an operation flowchart for specifying database search conditions by the database search device according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a condition designation screen (No. 1) according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a condition designation screen (No. 2) according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a condition designation screen (No. 3) according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a condition designation screen (No. 4) according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a condition designation screen (No. 5) according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 10 is a system configuration diagram according to a conventional technique.

FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating a system according to the related art.

[Explanation of symbols]

 110 Input Means 120 Data Acquisition Means 130 Acquired Data Discrimination Means 140 Statistics Calculation Means 150 Display Means 152 Statistics Amount Display Means 154 Attribute Value List Display Means 200 Database 210 Graphical User Interface (GUI) 212 Bitmap Display 214 Mouse 220 Database Search Device 230, 320 Data acquisition unit 240 Acquisition data determination unit 250 Statistics calculation unit 260 Display unit 262 Statistics result display unit 264 Attribute value list display unit 266 Attribute list display unit 282 Title 284 Graphic statistic 286 Attribute value scale 288 Attribute value range Designated area (slider box) 310 Database search system 380 Keyboard 390 Display 400 Database attribute list display 410 Database attribute value selection pull-down Menu 420 Attribute value statistics display 430 Attribute value range specification slider box

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A database search device for searching and outputting necessary information from a database in response to an input of an information request from a user, and the information request from the user is input using a device having a pointing function. An input unit (110), a data acquisition unit (120) for acquiring the data desired by the user from the database based on the search condition of the database input by the input unit (110), and the data acquisition unit Acquired data discriminating means (13) for classifying the data acquired by (120) into an attribute of a numerical data type and an attribute of another data type according to the attribute.
0) and a statistic calculating means (140) for calculating a statistic of an attribute value included in the attribute of the numerical data type when the acquired data determining means (130) determines the numerical data type.
And a statistic display unit (152) for displaying the statistic calculated by the statistic calculation unit (140) and displaying the statistic processed by the graphic processing. An attribute value list display means (154) for displaying a list of attribute values to be displayed, and a display means (150) for displaying a list of the attribute of the database, the information being displayed from the information displayed by the display means (150). A database search device, characterized in that the user is allowed to specify a desired search condition by the input means (110). 2. The statistic calculating means (140) calculates a frequency distribution of appearance frequencies of attribute values included in the numeric type attributes, and the statistic displaying means (152) calculates the statistic calculating means (140). The frequency distribution calculated by) is graphically processed and displayed as a frequency distribution chart, and is used as the search condition from the range of the attribute value of the frequency distribution chart displayed by the statistic display means (152). 2. The database search device according to claim 1, wherein a range of values to be selected is selected by the input means (110).