| 摘要 |
The method and apparatus enable information to be retrieved from an electronic database based on a probabilistic approach and some query processing. In one aspect, records of a database are parsed into record tokens using a pattern action language before an index for the records is created. In another aspect, a table of index tokens is created wherein the table comprises a frequency of occurrence in the database for each index token and each index token comprises a phonetic equivalent for a respective record token. In one aspect, a query is parsed into query tokens using a pattern action language, a search token is generated from a query token, and the search token is used to access database records. In another aspect, a search token comprises a phonetic equivalent for a query token or a token that qualifies as similar to a query token and search token and a search token is used to access database records. The qualification of a token as similar to a query token is based on a comparison of the query token to a database dictionary using an information theoretic algorithm. In yet another aspect, a token is selected, the selected token is used to access database records, a likelihood of relevance to the query is calculated for each of the records, and the highest likelihood of relevance to the query is compared to a continuation threshold. If the continuation threshold is exceeded, no more records are accessed and the accessed records are output. If the continuation threshold is not exceeded, the selected search token is eliminated from the set of available search tokens, and a new token is selected for accessing database records. |
