Method for character string collation with filtering function and apparatus

A text search system for deciding en bloc whether or not a plurality of user-designated search terms exist in a text composed of characters expressed in the form of character codes,

• characterized in that said system comprises:
• character string storage means for storing a text;
• concatenate filtering means for fetching character codes sequentially from the text read out from said character string storage means to thereby make decision as to whether or not n, where n represents an integer not smaller than 2, character codes as fetched are included in said search terms as a concatenate character string and output said n concatenate character codes only when said codes are included in said search terms;
• character string matching means for deciding by matching en bloc whether or not said search terms exist in a compound character string composed of a chain of the character strings each constituted by n concatenate character codes outputted from said concatenate filtering means;
• and
• synchronizing means provided between said concatenate filtering means and said character string matching means for buffering differences in processing speed while transferring data from said concatenate filtering means to said character string matching means.

A text search system for deciding en bloc whether or not a plurality of user-designator search terms exist in a text composed of characters expressed in the form of character codes,

• characterized in that said system comprises:
• character string storage means for storing the text;
• parallel filtering means for fetching character codes sequentially on an n-by-n character basis from the text read out from said character string storage means to thereby make decision for m, where m represents a divisor of n, characters in parallel as to whether or not n, where n represents an integer not smaller than 2, character codes as fetched are included in said search terms as concatenate character strings and output said n concatenate character codes only when they are included in said search term;
• character string matching means for deciding by matching en bloc whether or not said search terms exist in a compound character string constituted by a chain of character strings each composed of n concatenate character codes outputted from said parallel filtering means;
• and
• synchronizing means provided between said parallel filtering means and said character string matching means for buffering differences in processing speed while transferring data from said parallel filtering means to said character string matching means.

A text search method for deciding en bloc whether or not a plurality of user-designated search terms exist in a text composed of characters expressed in the form of character codes,

• characterized in that character codes are fetched from said text to output only those character codes that are included in said search terms by extracting said character codes, referred to as filtering;
• matching is performed en bloc for deciding whether or not said search terms exist in the string of said character codes as outputted;
• and
• synchronizing between said filtering and said matching for buffering differences in processing speed while transferring data from said filtering to said matching.