US 8,712,989 B2Granted

Wild card auto completion

AssigneeMicrosoft Corporation

InventorsHao Wei, Matthew Robert Scott, Gang Chen

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Abstract

Described herein is a technology that facilitates efficient wild card auto completion of an input term. The technology supports the input term including multiple, predefined, distinct wild card characters, escape characters, special characters with language specific functionality, delimiters, and context designation. Wild card auto completion is based on a regular expression engine that supports the multiple, predefined, wild card characters. In addition, the technology supports a single input that may include multiple parts including context, domain, parts of speech, and a number of words in a result phrase. In various embodiments the technology facilitates pattern optimization to merge a subset of consecutive homogenous wild card characters and provides a selection of matching tools based on criteria including the type of wild card character included in the input term and where the wild card character appears in the input term as well as context.

Claims20

Dependent claims

A method comprising:

accepting a request to a wild card auto completion service including an input term at least partly in a target language and at least partly in an initial language, wherein the initial language and the target language are two different languages, the service employing a syntax to accept the input term including zero to multiple wild card characters in the target language or in the initial language in a first part and a delimiter indicating a second part, the second part comprising the target language or the initial language such that:
if the language of the first part includes the initial language, the second part includes the target language and if the language of the first part includes the target language, the second part includes the initial language, and the second part identifying at least one of a context or a domain for the wild card auto completion service;
identifying an initial-target language pair for the request;
aggregating two or more consecutive homogenous wild card characters, wherein the aggregating comprises replacing the two or more consecutive homogenous wild card characters with a single wild card character of a same type as the homogenous wild card character;
parsing the input term to identify a pattern of the input term;
selecting a matcher corresponding to the pattern of the input term;
matching the input term to an entry using the matcher selected;
and
returning the entry.

6 more elements

A computer-readable medium having computer executable instructions encoded thereon, the computer executable instructions for execution by a processor to perform wild card auto completion operations, the operations comprising:

accepting a request to a wild card auto completion service including an input term at least partly in a target language and partly in an initial language, wherein the initial language and the target language are two different languages, the service employing a syntax to accept the input term including zero to multiple wild card characters in the target language or in the initial language in a first part and a delimiter indicating a second part, the second part comprising the target language or the initial language such that:
if the language of the first part includes the initial language, the second part includes the target language and if the language of the first part includes the target language, the second part includes the initial language, and the second part identifying at least one of a context or a domain for the wild card auto completion service;
identifying an initial-target language pair for the request;
aggregating two or more consecutive homogenous wild card characters, wherein the aggregating comprises replacing the two or more consecutive homogenous wild card characters with a single wild card character of a same type as the homogenous wild card character;
parsing the input term to identify a pattern of the input term;
matching the pattern of the input term to an entry;
and
returning the entry.

5 more elements

A computing device comprising:

a processor;
a memory communicatively coupled to the processor, the memory storing modules comprising:
a wild card auto completion module configured to:
accept a request to a wild card auto completion service including an input term at least partly in a target language and partly in an initial language, wherein the initial language and the target language are two different languages, the service employing a syntax to accept the input term including zero to multiple wild card characters in the target language or in the initial language in a first part and a delimiter indicating a second part, the second part comprising the target language or the initial language such that:
if the language of the first part includes the initial language, the second part includes the target language and if the language of the first part includes the target language, the second part includes the initial language, and the second part identifying at least one of a context or a domain for the wild card auto completion service;
identify an initial-target language pair for the request;
aggregate two or more consecutive homogenous wild card characters, wherein the aggregating comprises replacing the two or more consecutive homogenous wild card characters with a single wild card character of a same type as the homogenous wild card character;
parse the input term to identify a pattern of the input term;
and
return the list of results.

7 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.