Splitting a character string into keyword strings

• US 8,515,969 B2
• Filed: 09/30/2010
• Issued: 08/20/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 02/19/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Go Daddy Operating Company LLC (GoDaddy, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Go Daddy Operating Company LLC (GoDaddy, Inc.)
• Inventors: Nicks, Paul, Schmucker, Doug, Belina, Jeff, Glick, Gregory, Lutwitze, Patrick
• Primary Examiner(s): PHILLIPS, III, ALBERT M
• Application Number:
  US12/894,519
• Publication Number:
  US 20110208513A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,055 Days
• Field of Search: 707/754, 707/749
• US Class Current: 707/749
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/205 Parsing

Abstract

Systems and methods of the present invention provide for the word splitting and reliability score for an entered character string. A list of keywords may be extracted from the character string entered into a user interface on a client. These keywords may be compared to potential matches in a dictionary database and a reliability score for word splits and keywords strings may be compiled and displayed to the user. The client may also display the reliability score using a plurality of logical groupings within a reliability score process.

Claims

1. A method, comprising the steps of:

a) receiving, by a server computer communicatively coupled to a network, a character string from a client computer communicatively coupled to the network;

b) creating, by the server computer, a cached list of micro-dictionary keywords, further comprising the steps of;

i) generating, by the server computer, a substring length variable with a value of 3;

ii) generating, by the server computer, from the character string, at least one substring equal in length to the substring length variable;

iii) determining, by the server computer, whether the at least one substring is found in an electronic dictionary database;

iv) responsive to a determination that the at least one substring is found in the electronic dictionary database, adding, by the server computer, at least one micro-dictionary keyword, comprising the at least one substring, to the cached list

v) incrementing, by the server computer, the substring length variable by 1; and

vi) repeating, by the server computer, steps b) ii)-b) v) until the substring length variable equals a length of the character string;

c) for each at least one micro-dictionary keyword in the cached list, in descending order by number of characters;

i) storing, by the server computer, the micro-dictionary keyword in a temporary list

ii) identifying, by the server computer, within the character string, at least one contiguous string that is not the micro-dictionary keyword; and

iii) for each at least one contiguous string, and while characters remain in the character string;

1) determining, by the server computer, whether the contiguous string, or a smaller contiguous string within the contiguous string, comprises an additional micro-dictionary keyword; and

2) responsive to a determination that the contiguous string or the smaller contiguous string comprises the additional micro-dictionary keyword, storing, by the server computer, in the temporary list, the contiguous string or the smaller contiguous string;

d) calculating, by the server computer, a reliability score for a plurality of keyword strings comprising the temporary list for each at least one micro-dictionary keyword in the cached list; and

e) transmitting, by the server computer, the reliability score for each of the plurality of keyword strings to the client computer.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein, if a first plurality score for a first keyword string is the same as a second plurality score for a second keyword string, an n-gram score using an algorithm and a dataset determines relative usage of keywords together with common language.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein n=the number of words.

4. The method of claim 2 wherein the algorithm for the n-gram score is used as a secondary sort after the reliability score for each of the plurality of keyword strings is determined to determine the most reliability of a final keyword split.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of establishing, by the server computer, an inner loop through each of micro-dictionary keyword in the cached list, the inner loop comprising the steps of:

i) looping, by the server computer, through each micro-dictionary keyword, in descending order by number of characters; and

ii) for each micro-dictionary keyword in the inner loop, determining, by the server computer, if the micro-dictionary keyword is found in each of a plurality of smaller contiguous strings.

6. The method of claim 5 further comprising the step of, if the micro-dictionary keyword not found in the plurality of smaller contiguous strings:

i) determining, by the server computer, that the at least one contiguous string is not found in the cached list; and

ii) determining, by the server computer, if the next micro-dictionary keyword is found in the plurality of smaller contiguous strings.

7. The method of claim 6 further comprising the step of, for each at least one contiguous string not found in the cached list:

i) grouping the plurality of smaller contiguous strings not found in the micro-dictionary as words;

ii) storing the plurality of smaller contiguous strings grouped as one or more temporary words in the temporary list; and

iii) continuing an outer loop.

8. The method of claim 7 further comprising the steps of:

i) finding, by the server computer, the largest of the one or more temporary words; and

ii) returning, by the server computer, the largest of the one or more temporary words found from the temporary list to be stored in a keyword list with its beginning character position.

9. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of, if characters remain in a current iteration of a micro-dictionary loop, finding, by the server computer, a next largest contiguous word.

10. The method of claim 9 further comprising the step of, if no characters remain in the current iteration of the micro-dictionary loop, incrementing, by the server computer, a loop count and continuing the micro-dictionary loop with a next dictionary word in the loop count as the first to be used.

11. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of, on completing the micro-dictionary loop, removing, by the server computer, one or more duplicate words from the keyword list.

12. The method of claim 11 further comprising the step of re-ordering, by the server computer, the plurality of keyword strings by character position.

13. The method of claim 12 further comprising the step of returning, by the server computer, a plurality of keyword strings and reliability scores from each of the plurality of keyword strings.

14. The method of claim 1 wherein the reliability score is used in a context of a spellcheck program.

15. The method of claim 1 wherein the reliability score is used in a context of a search engine program.

16. The method of claim 1 wherein the reliability score is used in a context of a domain setup program.