Patent ID: 6912526

Claim:
A search method of searching for a combination of records from a set of records consisting of a plurality of attributes, comprising extracting order relation among a plurality of events, each of which defines that a predetermined attribute of a record has a predetermined value, the order relation defined based on an order of an attribute value, from a search pattern query that includes a repetition of an event and that is designated using the plurality of events and the order relation, and converting the extracted order relation into a deterministic finite automaton; repeating a process of reading into a memory one or more records positioned in a same order position from the set of records, of checking whether or not a state transition can be performed by the deterministic finite automaton using the read records, and of registering in a state transition set a transition destination of a possible state transition and additional information indicating a record enabling the possible state transition; obtaining a combination of records corresponding to the search pattern query from additional information of a state transition which has reached an end state of the deterministic finite automaton when the end state is registered in the state transition set as a transition destination; and outputting the obtained combination of records as a search result.