In a character input device in a document data processing apparatus, when a special-purpose key on a keyboard is operated in a character input device in a document, data processing apparatus and when a word, in which at least one starting character of the word designated to be a key word, coincides with at least one sought after character, and is detected as such, by a search circuit, from words key-inputted in advance, thereby establishing the coincidence, the corresponding word is stored in a text memory as a newly input word.

Storage or retrieval of a record from computer storage or memory is generally accomplished by scanning, or direct addressing. Scanning a file of records to retrieve one particular record requires comparing its key with the key of one record after another until a match is found. Direct addressing involves assigning each record to a specific location usually on the basis of a record key. Direct addressing provides the most rapid means of accessing a single record in a file, but the process of transforming a record key, to a corresponding address or location where the record can be found, is subject to certain disadvantages. Neither complete randomization nor a completely uniform distribution results when keys are converted to addresses even by random conversion transformations or hashing techniques. A transformation or hashing process is provided herein which not only leads to a greater degree of randomness, but is so general that it is effective for both static and volatile files.

A word block searching method searches for a specific designated word block (a one-sentence word block). Instead of designating it by a cursor operation from the head position to the tail position of the word block, portions of the head and tail portions are designated. A word block searcher of the invention has a CPU for performing head and tail portion searching of word block data in a document memory based on partial head and tail position designation. The CPU is also for reading out a word block defined by the found head and tail positions and displaying the readout word block.

A method and apparatus for reconstructing a token from a token fragment (unreconstructed token) wherein at least two indices for an unreconstructed string and three indices for a vocabulary string are iteratively calculated and recorded. Each string has associated with it two indices that record distance moved by successful character comparisons from either end of the strings. In addition, the vocabulary string also has an index that points to the last character in the vocabulary string that was successfully matched to a character in the unreconstructed string during the first comparison step with respect to the initial end of the strings. The strings are compared with respect to one end of the strings, at least one of the indices moves away from the initially selected end of the strings, both pointing to a character of the unreconstructed string and measuring the distance into a string that was traversed by a series of successful character comparisons from the end of the string at which the initial comparison step began. Furthermore, the second calculating and recording step, performed with respect to the opposite end of the strings, is bypassed if all the characters of the token fragment are accounted for in the vocabulary string. If not bypassed, the strings are compared with respect to the opposite end of the strings. A fuzziness factor is input that controls admission of vocabulary strings to the function that computes a non-zero reconstruction index requiring only the calculated and recorded indices.

A data storage and retrieval device and method is disclosed. The device includes at least one magnetic storage medium configured to store target data and at least one re-configurable logic device comprising an FPGA coupled to the at least one magnetic storage medium and configured to read a continuous stream of target data therefrom, having been configured with a template or as otherwise desired to fit the type of search and data being searched. The reconfigurable logic device is configured to receive at least one search inquiry in the form of a data key and to determine a match between the data key and the target data as it is being read from the at least one magnetic storage medium. This device and method can perform a variety of searches on the target data including without limitation exact and approximate match searches, sequence match searches, image match searches and data reduction searches. This device and method may be provided as part of a stand-alone computer system, embodied in a network attached storage device, or can otherwise be provided as part of a computer LAN or WAN.