Patent ID: 8224838

Claim:
A database search method comprising: a search condition setting step performed by a search condition setting unit of a computer for setting search condition items containing an item value used in an initial search are specified; a search condition specifying step performed by a search condition specifying unit of a computer for specifying a search condition item containing an item value and a substitutional product as a re-search condition item, at the same time, and a search method is specified among a normal search, a two-step search and a plural-step search; a search processing step performed by a search processing unit of the computer for extracting an item value corresponding to the specified re-search condition item from the search result of a database according to the specified search condition item, and repeating a search of the database recursively by using the extracted item value as a new item value of the search condition item without specifying a new re-search condition item based on a search result; and a search result display step performed by a search result display unit of the computer for displaying the search results and the re-search results obtained in the search processing step in a list; wherein the search condition specifying step is performed before a first search of the search processing step; and wherein in the search condition specifying step, an arbitrary search step number is specified as a search method in a plural-step search, and a display type of the search results is specified.