Patent ID: 6678674
Filing Date: 2004-01-13
Classification: G06F,Y10S

Abstract:
A data retrieving apparatus comprising:a database built so as to include an unnormalized data structure; a data dictionary holding definition information for representing said unnormalized data structure as a logically normalized structure; a retrieval request input section for assisting an input of a retrieval request from a user according to said data dictionary; a retrieval request translation section for performing a syntax analysis of said retrieval request according to said data dictionary upon completion of the input of said retrieval request so as to convert said retrieval request into one or more query statements which are executable by said database; a retrieval processing section for issuing said one or more query statements to said database so as to acquire retrieval data composed of one or more results of execution of said one or more query statements; a retrieval data processing section for editing said retrieval data so as to generate result data corresponding to said retrieval request; wherein said data dictionary includes the definition information to which display information selectably presented to the user when assisting said input, a query statement pattern for converting the retrieval request to the query statement which is executable by said database, and physical information in said database are related for each of logical items representing a data unit in said retrieval request; wherein said retrieval request input section generates the result data from a plurality of display items, which are selected by the user from said display information, such that the plurality of display items employing a common display item as a key item are compounded into said result data; and wherein said retrieval request translation section expands all the display items included in the retrieval request according to said data dictionary and converts the expanded display items into corresponding logical items, respectively, and wherein said retrieval request translation section removes data redundancy in the retrieval request by performing one of column integration for integrating different physical items, which compose the physical information, into a same logical item according to an extraction condition, column decomposition for decomposing a same physical item into different logical items, row selection for selecting a single logical item, whose content does not overlap with those of other items, from physical items whose contents overlap with those of other physical items, and key value selection for selecting different physical items according to a key value and aggregating the different physical items to a single logical item, and converts the retrieval request into said one or more query statements normalized according to a first order predicate logic in a data manipulation language based on predetermined SQL.