Patent ID: 7779005

Claim:
An apparatus for managing a database, the database having a hierarchical database and including lower and upper classes, the apparatus comprising: a processor; an extracting unit that extracts detailed information characterizing a class and a property which is included in at least one referenced dictionary and which is referenced to by a referencing dictionary, the detailed information including one of a name or a definition concerning the class or the property, the referencing dictionary having a hierarchical structure in which the lower classes inherit properties of the upper classes, each of the class and the property having an identifier which uniquely identifies each of the class and the property, the referenced dictionary having a referencing relation described by the identifier as a pointer with the referencing dictionary; an adding unit that adds the extracted detailed information to the referencing dictionary; a dictionary data organizing scheme-determining unit that accepts an input of the referencing dictionary haying added the detailed information, and makes a determination on the information of an extraction extent of the referenced dictionary included in the accepted referencing dictionary; a dictionary database-structuring unit that structures the referencing dictionary according to one of a result of the determination by the dictionary data organizing scheme determining unit or a previously stored version of the information on the specifying scheme of the extraction extent of the reference dictionary, and an output unit that outputs the structured referencing dictionary.