Automatic statement completion

• US 6,305,008 B1
• Filed: 11/13/1998
• Issued: 10/16/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 11/13/1998
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Vaidyanathan, Shankar, Lucido, Philip, Bhatia, Sundeep
• Primary Examiner(s): Kulik, Paul V.
• Application Number:
  US09/191,781
• Time in Patent Office: 1,068 Days
• Field of Search: 717/1, 717/2, 717/3, 717/8, 717/4, 707/530, 707/534, 707/104
• US Class Current: 717/111
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/274 Converting codes to words; Guess-ahead of partial word inputs
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/33 Intelligent editors
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 Object-oriented database structure processing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99948 Application of database or data structure, e.g. distributed, multimedia, or image

Abstract

Automatic statement completion is disclosed. In one embodiment, a system includes an editor to provide for developing source code for a computer program, and a database containing information on entities in the source code. The system also includes a completion module invoked by the editor upon the occurrence of a predetermined event and operative to display a set of valid entities in response to a pre-determined event.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

developing at least a section of source code for a computer program, said source code having tokens and entities;

detecting a pre-determined event;

issuing a query to a database containing entity information upon detecting the predetermined event, said query regarding at least one token of said plurality of tokens; and

using the entity information to display a set of potentially valid entities relating to said at least one token of said plurality of tokens for potential prospective entry at a current position in the source code.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein developing the section of source code comprises utilizing an editor program.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the predetermined event is selected from the group consisting of:

entering a hot-key, causing a cursor to be positioned over a token for at least a pre-determined amount of time, selecting an icon, selecting a menu entry, pressing a mouse button, and highlighting one or more tokens.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein one of the plurality of tokens comprises a separator and wherein the predetermined event is when the separator is supplied to the editor.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein displaying the set of potentially valid entities displays the set in a drop-down box.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

parsing at least a subset of the source code to obtain parser data; and

wherein the query includes at least a subset of the parser data.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the database includes a dynamically updated component and a pre-built component.

8. A system comprising:

an editor module to provide for developing source code for a computer program, said source code having a plurality of tokens that declare and define a plurality of entities;

a database containing information about the entities; and

a completion module invoked by the editor module upon the occurrence of a predetermined event and operative to query the database regarding at least one token of said plurality of tokens and display a set of potentially valid entities relating to said at least one token of said plurality of tokens for potential prospective entry at a current position in the source code.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the predetermined event is selected from the group consisting of:

entering a hot-key, causing a cursor to be positioned over a token for at least a pre-determined amount of time, selecting an icon, selecting a menu entry, pressing a mouse button, and highlighting one or more tokens.

10. The system of claim 8, wherein one of the plurality of tokens comprises a separator and wherein the predetermined event is when the separator is supplied to the editor.

11. The system of claim 8, further comprising:

a parser operative to parse at least a subset of the source code and to return parser data; and

wherein the completion module uses the parser data to query the database for information on the entities and includes at least a subset of the entities in the set of potentially valid entities.

12. The system of claim 8, wherein the database includes a dynamically updated component and a pre-built component.

13. The system of claim 8, wherein the display of the set of potentially valid entities comprises displaying the set of potentially valid entities in a drop-down box.

14. A computer comprising:

a processor;

a computer readable medium; and

an editor module to provide for developing source code for a computer program, said source code having a plurality of tokens and a plurality of entities;

a database containing entity information; and

a completion module invoked by the editor module upon the occurrence of a predetermined event and operative to query the database regarding at least one token of said plurality of tokens and display a set of potentially valid entities relating to said at least one token of said plurality of tokens for potential prospective entry at a current position in the source code.

15. The computer of claim 14, wherein the predetermined event is selected from the group consisting of:

entering a hot-key, causing a cursor to be positioned over a token for at least a pre-determined amount of time, selecting an icon, selecting a menu entry, pressing a mouse button, and highlighting one or more tokens.

16. The computer of claim 14, wherein one of the plurality of tokens comprises a separator and wherein the predetermined event is when the separator is supplied to the editor.

17. The computer of claim 14, further comprising:

a parser operative to parse at least a subset of the source code and to return parser data; and

wherein the completion module uses the parser data to query the database for token information and includes at least a subset of the entity information in the set of potentially valid entities.

18. The computer of claim 14, wherein the database includes a dynamically updated component and a pre-built component.

19. The computer of claim 14, wherein the display of the set of potentially valid entities comprises displaying the set of potentially valid entities in a drop-down box.

20. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions for performing a method comprising:

developing at least a section of source code for a computer program, said source code having a plurality of tokens and a plurality of entities;

detecting a pre-determined event;

issuing a query to a database containing token information upon detecting the predetermined event, said query regarding at least one token of said plurality of tokens; and

using the entity information to display a set of potentially valid entities relating to said at least one token of said plurality of tokens for potential prospective entry at a current position in the source code.

21. The computer-readable medium of claim 20, wherein developing the section of source code comprises utilizing an editor program.

22. The computer-readable medium of claim 20, wherein the predetermined event is selected from the group consisting of:

entering a hot-key, causing a cursor to be positioned over a token for at least a pre-determined amount of time, selecting an icon, selecting a menu entry, pressing a mouse button, and highlighting one or more tokens.

23. The computer-readable medium of claim 20, wherein one of the plurality of tokens comprises a separator and wherein the predetermined event is when the separator is supplied to the editor.

24. The computer-readable medium of claim 20, wherein displaying the set of potentially valid entities displays the set in a drop-down box.

25. The computer-readable medium of claim 20, further comprising:

parsing at least a subset of the source code to obtain parser data; and

wherein the query includes at least a subset of the parser data.

26. The computer-readable medium of claim 20, wherein the database includes a dynamically updated component and a pre-built component.