Document searching apparatus

• US 6,298,344 B1
• Filed: 03/26/1999
• Issued: 10/02/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 03/28/1998
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Company Limited (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Company Limited (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Ito, Hayashi, Sato, Mitsuhiro, Noguchi, Naohiko, Kanno, Yuji, Inaba, Mitsuaki
• Primary Examiner(s): Alam, Hosain T.
• Assistant Examiner(s): ALAM, SHAHID AL
• Application Number:
  US09/277,197
• Time in Patent Office: 921 Days
• Field of Search: 707/1-5, 707/9, 707/10, 707/104, 707/201, 707/513, 707/6, 707/531, 706/12, 709/203, 709/218, 709/219, 725/116, 345/340, 345/327
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/319 Inverted lists
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99935 Query augmenting and refining, e.g. inexact access
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99939 Privileged access
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 Object-oriented database structure processing

Abstract

A searching apparatus includes an index generation portion for generating an index to provide data of the number of documents including the key word and the number of appearances of the key word. Matching degrees between the key word and documents are calculated from the number of documents including the key word and the number of appearances of the key word. A portion of documents are arranged in order of the matching degree in a buffer which are outputted as the searching result. Lower rank documents regarding the matching degree are searched by comparing the lowest matching degree of the neighbour higher ranked document arranged in the buffer. At first time searching, data of the latest edition of the documents stored in a memory is detected and stored and is used to provide second time searching operation to eliminate inconsistency in the searching result between the editions at first and second time searching operations. The index is generated every field of each document. The matching degree of combined field is calculated by logical operation between the two fields. Moreover, an index of combined field may be generated and one of field of the combined field may be omitted. The matching degree of the other field is also obtained by another logical operation.

Claims

1. A document searching apparatus comprising:

storing means for storing a plurality of documents;

searching request receiving means for receiving a searching request including key word data;

matching degree calculation means responsive to said searching request for calculating matching degrees between said key word data and said documents in said storing means;

a buffer;

arranging means responsive to said matching degree calculation means for storing a portion of documents arranged in order of the calculated matching degrees, the number of said documents of said portion being equal to or less than a reference number;

searching result outputting means for outputting said portion of documents from said buffer;

lowest matching degree detecting and storing means responsive to said matching degree calculation means for detecting and storing the lowest matching degree of said documents of said portion;

lower rank document searching request receiving means for receiving a lower rank document searching request; and

lower rank document searching means responsive to said lower rank document searching request for operating said matching degree calculation means and said arranging means to arrange, in said buffer, from said storing means, neighbor portion of said documents having the calculated matching degrees regarding said key word data less than the lowest matching degree from said lowest matching degree detecting and storing means as an upper limit value in order of the calculated matching degrees of said neighbour portion and operating said searching result outputting means to output said neighbour portion of documents from said buffer, the number of said documents of said neighbour portion being equal to or less than said reference number.

2. A document searching apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein said searching result outputting means further outputs the calculated matching degrees correspondingly of said portion of documents arranged and outputs the calculated matching degrees correspondingly of the neighbour portion of documents arranged.

3. A document searching apparatus as claimed in claim 1, further includes the number of results request receiving means for receiving a request of the number of said documents in said portion and said neighbour portion to be outputted from said buffer as said reference number.

4. A document searching apparatus as claimed in claim 1, further comprising index generating means for generating an index correspondingly including a plurality of index key word data from said documents, document number data of said documents including each of said index key word data and data of the number of times of appearances of each of said index key word data every said document, wherein said matching degree calculation means calculates said degrees of matching between said key word data and each of said documents with reference to said index when there is one of said index key word data corresponding to said key word data.

5. A document searching apparatus comprising:

storing means for storing a plurality of documents;

searching request receiving means for receiving a searching request including key word data;

matching degree calculation means responsive to said searching request for calculating matching degrees between said key word data and said documents in said storing means;

a buffer;

arranging means responsive to said matching degree calculation means for storing a portion of documents arranged in order of the calculated matching degrees, the number of said documents of said portion being equal to or less than a reference number;

searching result outputting means for outputting said portion of documents from said buffer;

lowest matching degree detecting and storing means responsive to said matching degree calculation means for detecting and storing the lowest matching degree of said documents of said portion;

lower rank document searching request receiving means for receiving a lower rank document searching request;

lower rank document searching means responsive to said lower rank document searching request for operating said matching degree calculation means and said arranging means to arrange, in said buffer, from said storing means, lower rank portion of said documents having the calculated matching degrees regarding said key word data less than the lowest matching degree from said lowest matching degree detecting and storing means as an upper limit value in order of the calculated matching degrees of said lower rank portion and operating said searching result outputting means to output said lower rank portion of documents from said buffer, the number of said documents of said lower rank portion being equal to or less than said reference number;

highest matching degree detecting and storing means responsive to said matching degree calculation means for detecting and storing the highest matching degree of said documents of said lower rank portion;

higher rank document searching request receiving means for receiving a higher rank document searching request; and

higher rank document searching means responsive to said higher rank document searching request for operating said matching degree calculation means and said arranging means to arrange, in said buffer, from said storing means, higher rank portion of said documents having the calculated matching degrees regarding said key word data higher than the highest matching degree from said highest matching degree detecting and storing means as a lower limit value in order of the calculated matching degrees of said higher rank portion and operating said searching result outputting means to output said higher rank portion of documents from said buffer, the number of said documents of said higher rank portion being equal to or less than said reference number.

6. A document searching apparatus comprising:

storing means for storing a plurality of documents every edition which is renewable;

latest edit detection means responsive to said storing means for detecting the latest edition of said edition and generating latest edition data;

first searching request receiving means for receiving a first searching request including key word data;

matching degree calculation means responsive to said first searching request for calculating matching degrees between said key word data and said documents of the latest edition in said storing means with reference to said latest edition data;

a buffer;

arranging means responsive to said matching degree calculation means for storing a portion of documents of the latest edition indicated by said latest edition data arranged in order of the calculated matching degrees, the number of said documents of said portion being equal to or less than a reference number, said latest edition being referred as a used edition;

edition data storing means for storing said latest edition data used in said arranging means as used-edition data indicative of said used edition;

first searching result outputting means responsive to said arranging means for outputting said portion of documents from said buffer;

second searching request receiving means for receiving a second searching request;

searching means responsive to said second searching request for operating said matching degree calculation means and said arranging means to arrange a neighbour portion of said documents of said used edition indicated by said used-edition data in said buffer; and

second searching result outputting means for outputting said neighbour portion of documents from said buffer.

7. A document searching apparatus comprising:

storing means for storing a plurality of documents, each document including a plurality of fields;

index generation means for generating indexes from said fields respectively, each index including a plurality of index key word data included in each field of said documents, document numbers of said documents including each of said index key word data, and the number of times of appearances of each of said index key word data in each field in said documents correspondingly;

a buffer;

searching request receiving means for receiving a searching request including key word data, and field data indicative of more than one of said fields;

calculating means for calculating the number of times of appearances of one of a plurality of said index key word corresponding to said key word data as search data every document in each field and the number of documents including said search data in each field with reference to said indexes;

operation means responsive to said field data for summing up the number of times of appearances of said search word data of respective fields of said more than one of said fields every document and the number of documents including said search data in said more than one of said fields in accordance with the result of said calculating means;

matching degree calculation means for calculating matching degrees between said key word data and said documents in said more than one of said fields in accordance with the result of said operation means to provide combined matching degrees;

arranging means for storing a portion of said documents in said buffer in order of the combined matching degrees; and

searching result outputting means for outputting said portion of documents in response to said arranging means.

8. A document searching apparatus comprising:

storing means for storing a plurality of documents, each document including at least first and second fields;

index generation means for generating a first index of said first field including a plurality of first index key word data included in said first field of said documents, document numbers of said documents including each of said first index key word data, and the number of times of appearances of each said first index key word data in said first field of said documents correspondingly and a second index of a combined field of said first and second fields including a plurality of second index key word data of said combined field of said documents, document numbers of said documents including each of said second index key word data, and the number of times of appearances of each of said second index key word data in said combined field in said documents, correspondingly;

a buffer;

searching request receiving means for receiving a searching request including key word data and field data of said second field;

calculating means for calculating the number of times of appearances of one of a plurality of said first index key word data corresponding to said key word data as first search data every document and the number of documents including said first search data in said first field with reference to said first index and calculating the number of times of appearances of one of a plurality of said second index key word data corresponding to said key word data as second search data every document and the number of documents including said second search data in said combined field with reference to said second index of a combined field;

operation means responsive to said field data for subtracting the number of times of appearances of said first search data every document in said first field from the number of times of appearances of said second search data every document in said combined field and obtaining the number of documents including either of said first or second search word data in said combined field with reference to said first and second indexes;

matching degree calculation means for calculating matching degrees between said key word data and said documents in said second field in accordance with the result of said operation means;

arranging means for storing a portion of said documents in said buffer in order of said matching degrees; and

searching result outputting means for outputting said portion of documents in response to said arranging means.