Method and apparatus for compressing a dictionary database by partitioning a master dictionary database into a plurality of functional parts and applying an optimum compression technique to each part

摘要

A method and apparatus for compressing dictionary database information is described. The method divides the database information into a number of parts which are each conducive to a predetermined compression technique. A first part database is formed consisting of all the entry points in the dictionary wherein each entry point is associated with a unique word number. A second part database is formed consisting of a multiplicity of placeholders. A third part database is formed consisting of all the entry points of the dictionary in the exact order in which they appear in the dictionary. A fourth part database is formed consisting of the definitions and usage notes without reference to their text. A fifth part database allows retrieval of articles of interest without having to decompress the entire dictionary. Compression techniques using multigrams and minimum-redundancy codes are selectively applied to the different database parts.