Table allocating apparatus and method
First Claim
1. A table layout apparatus for providing a layout of a table having rows and columns, comprising:
- text holding means for holding at least one text to be laid out within the table;
connector holding means for holding at least one linear function with respect to parameters, each linear function being associated with a column of the table and representing a width of the column;
sectional constraint holding means for holding a sectional constraint for each text held by the text holding means, the sectional constraint including at least one linear inequality for which values for the parameters should satisfy in order that a height of a layout box, which is a rectangular area for laying out the text, remains constant;
layout evaluation means for receiving the height of the layout box and for calculating a target function in accordance with the received height of the layout box and the at least one linear function held by the connector holding means, the target function being linear with respect to the width of the columns of the table;
linear programming problem solution engine means for receiving the sectional constraint and, under the received sectional constraint, for finding optimal solutions for the parameter that yield a minimum/maximum value for the target function calculated by the layout evaluation means by solving a linear programming problem determined by the target function and the sectional constraint; and
linear programming problem managing means for finding optimal solutions for the parameters by repeating the following steps until at least one optimal solution is found;
selecting a sectional constraint held by the sectional constraint holding means;
inputting the selected sectional constraint to the linear programming problem solution engine means; and
receiving an output from the linear programming problem solution engine means, wherein the output is a pair of the optimal solutions for the parameters under the condition of the inputted sectional constraint and the value of the target function.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A table allocating apparatus for producing a layout of a table. In the apparatus, both of a linear equation for representing a column width of a table or a row height thereof by employing a parameter, and a section constraint condition corresponding to a combination of conditions for satisfying the parameter in order that a height or a width of a rectangle becomes constant when each of texts arranged in a table item column is allocated are set, then a layout evaluation formula expressed by the linear equation with employment of the parameter and indicative of better states of a layout for each of the section constraint conditions is calculated. Further, such a linear programming problem that the section constraint condition is used as a restriction condition and the layout evaluation formula corresponding to each of the section constraint conditions is used as an objective function is solved, thereby obtaining a set of an optimum layout evaluation value and a parameter corresponding to the optimum layout evaluation value, or an infeasible solution of the problem, and when the set of the optimum layout evaluation value and the parameter corresponding thereto is acquired, a set of the optimum layout evaluation value and the parameter corresponding thereto based on the acquired result among all of the linear programming problems are retrieved, whereby a table layout is determined based upon the set of the optimum layout evaluation value and the parameter corresponding thereto.
47 Citations
10 Claims
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1. A table layout apparatus for providing a layout of a table having rows and columns, comprising:
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text holding means for holding at least one text to be laid out within the table; connector holding means for holding at least one linear function with respect to parameters, each linear function being associated with a column of the table and representing a width of the column; sectional constraint holding means for holding a sectional constraint for each text held by the text holding means, the sectional constraint including at least one linear inequality for which values for the parameters should satisfy in order that a height of a layout box, which is a rectangular area for laying out the text, remains constant; layout evaluation means for receiving the height of the layout box and for calculating a target function in accordance with the received height of the layout box and the at least one linear function held by the connector holding means, the target function being linear with respect to the width of the columns of the table; linear programming problem solution engine means for receiving the sectional constraint and, under the received sectional constraint, for finding optimal solutions for the parameter that yield a minimum/maximum value for the target function calculated by the layout evaluation means by solving a linear programming problem determined by the target function and the sectional constraint; and linear programming problem managing means for finding optimal solutions for the parameters by repeating the following steps until at least one optimal solution is found; selecting a sectional constraint held by the sectional constraint holding means; inputting the selected sectional constraint to the linear programming problem solution engine means; and receiving an output from the linear programming problem solution engine means, wherein the output is a pair of the optimal solutions for the parameters under the condition of the inputted sectional constraint and the value of the target function. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
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10. A table layout method for producing a layout of a table having rows and columns, comprising the steps of:
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setting at least one text to be laid out within the table; setting at least one linear function with respect to parameters, wherein each linear function is associated with a column of the table and represents a width of the column; setting a sectional constraint for each text, the sectional constraint including at least one linear inequality for which values for the parameters should satisfy in order that a height of a layout box, which is a rectangular area in the table for laying out the text, remains constant; finding optimal solutions for the parameters by repeating the following steps until at least one optimal solution is found; selecting one of the sectional constraints; calculating a target function for the selected sectional constraint in accordance with the height of the layout box and the at least one linear function, the target function being linear with respect to the width of the columns of the table; and under the selected sectional constraint, finding optimal solutions for the parameters which yield a minimum/maximum value for the target function by solving a linear programming problem determined by the selected sectional constraint and the calculated target function.
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Specification