Method, system and computer program product for sorting text strings

Abstract

A multi-field text string contains display characters in a first field and sort characters in a second field. For ideographic languages such as Japanese, the display characters may be Kanji symbols for the text string while the sort characters are phonetic syllabary representations of the Kanji symbols. A plurality of such multi-field text strings may then be sorted by the contents of the second field rather than the contents of the first. Despite both the multiple pronunciations or meanings associated with the same Kanji symbols in Japanese and the unsorted ordering of Kanji symbols within the Unicode character set for Japanese, a culturally correct sort order is achieved for the multi-field text strings. Additionally, the contents of the second field may be altered to artificially promote a specific item within the sort order, while displaying the sorted text strings utilizing the contents of the first field. The mechanism for promoting particular text strings within the sort order does not interfere with user viewing of the displayed text strings.

Claims

What is claimed is:

1. A method of sorting text strings, comprising:

for each of a plurality of text strings, storing a first set of characters representing a corresponding text string in a first field within a multi-field data packet and a second set of characters representing the corresponding text string in a second field within the multi-field data packet, wherein each multi-field data packet for a text string includes a plurality of fields each containing a different representation of the text string;

sorting the plurality of text strings utilizing characters within the second field for each text string; and

displaying the plurality of text strings in a sorted order utilizing the characters within the first field for each text string.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of storing a first set of characters representing a corresponding text string in a first field within a multi-field data packet and a second set of characters representing the corresponding text string in a second field within the multi-field data packet further comprises:

storing an ideograph within the first field; and

storing a syllabary spelling of the ideograph within the second field.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

automatically capturing the syllabary spelling of the ideograph for entry in the second field during phonetic entry by a user of the ideograph for entry in the first field.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of storing a first set of characters representing a corresponding text string in a first field within a multi-field data packet and a second set of characters representing the corresponding text string in a second field within the multi-field data packet further comprises:

storing a character string within the first field; and

storing a user-defined sort value for the character string within the second field.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the step of storing a user-defined sort value for the character string within the second field further comprises:

storing the character string prefixed with at least one low sort-order character within the second field.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of sorting the plurality of text strings utilizing characters within the second field for each text string further comprises:

sorting the plurality of text strings utilizing only characters within the second field as a sort key.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of sorting the plurality of text strings utilizing characters within the second field for each text string further comprises:

sorting the plurality of text strings utilizing characters within the first field as a first-order sort key; and

for text strings containing the same characters within the first field, sorting the plurality of text strings utilizing characters within the second field as a second-order sort key.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of displaying the plurality of text strings in a sorted order utilizing the characters within the first field for each text string further comprises:

displaying ideographs within the first field of each of the plurality of text strings in an order sorted by syllabary spellings of the corresponding ideographs.

9. A system for sorting text strings, comprising:

means, for each of a plurality of text strings, for storing a first set of characters representing a corresponding text string in a first field within a multi-field data packet and a second set of characters representing the corresponding text string in a second field within the multi-field data packet, wherein each multi-field data packet for a text string includes a plurality of fields each containing a different representation of the text string;

means for sorting the plurality of text strings utilizing characters within the second field for each text string; and

means for displaying the plurality of text strings in a sorted order utilizing the characters within the first field for each text string.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the means for storing a first set of characters representing a corresponding text string in a first field within a multi-field data packet and a second set of characters representing the corresponding text string in a second field within the multi-field data packet further comprises:

means for storing an ideograph within the first field; and

means for storing a syllabary spelling of the ideograph within the second field.

11. The system of claim 10, further comprising:

means for automatically capturing the syllabary spelling of the ideograph for entry in the second field during phonetic entry by a user of the ideograph for entry in the first field.

12. The system of claim 9, wherein the means for storing a first set of characters representing a corresponding text string in a first field within a multi-field data packet and a second set of characters representing the corresponding text string in a second field within the multi-field data packet further comprises:

means for storing a character string within the first field; and

means for storing a user-defined sort value for the character string within the second field.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the means for storing a user-defined sort value for the character string within the second field further comprises:

means for storing the character string prefixed with at least one low sort-order character within the second field.

14. The system of claim 9, wherein the means for sorting the plurality of text strings utilizing characters within the second field for each text string further comprises:

means for sorting the plurality of text strings utilizing only characters within the second field as a sort key.

15. The system of claim 9, wherein the means for sorting the plurality of text strings utilizing characters within the second field for each text string further comprises:

means for sorting the plurality of text strings utilizing characters within the first field as a first-order sort key; and

means, for text strings containing the same characters within the first field, for sorting the plurality of text strings utilizing characters within the second field as a second-order sort key.

16. The system of claim 9, wherein the means for displaying the plurality of text strings in a sorted order utilizing the characters within the first field for each text string further comprises:

means for displaying ideographs within the first field of each of the plurality of text strings in an order sorted by syllabary spellings of the corresponding ideographs.

17. A computer program product within a computer usable medium for sorting text strings, comprising:

instructions, for each of a plurality of text strings, for storing a first set of characters representing a corresponding text string in a first field within a multi-field data packet and a second set of characters representing the corresponding text string in a second field within the multi-field data packet, wherein each multi-field data packet for a text string includes a plurality of fields each containing a different representation of the text string;

instructions for sorting the plurality of text strings utilizing characters within the second field for each text string; and

instructions for displaying the plurality of text strings in a sorted order utilizing the characters within the first field for each text string.

18. The computer program product of claim 17, wherein the instructions for storing a first set of characters representing a corresponding text string in a first field within a multi-field data packet and a second set of characters representing the corresponding text string in a second field within the multi-field data packet further comprises:

instructions for storing an ideograph within the first field; and

instructions for storing a syllabary spelling of the ideograph within the second field.

19. The computer program product of claim 18, further comprising:

instructions for automatically capturing the syllabary spelling of the ideograph for entry in the second field during phonetic entry by a user of the ideograph for entry in the first field.

20. The computer program product of claim 17, wherein the instructions for storing a first set of characters representing a corresponding text string in a first field within a multi-field data packet and a second set of characters representing the corresponding text string in a second field within the multi-field data packet further comprises:

instructions for storing a character string within the first field; and

instructions for storing a user-defined sort value for the character string within the second field.

21. The computer program product of claim 20, wherein the instructions for storing a user-defined sort value for the character string within the second field further comprises:

instructions for storing the character string prefixed with at least one low sort-order character within the second field.

22. The computer program product of claim 17, wherein the instructions for sorting the plurality of text strings utilizing characters within the second field for each text string further comprises:

instructions for sorting the plurality of text strings utilizing only characters within the second field as a sort key.

23. The computer program product of claim 17, wherein the instructions for sorting the plurality of text strings utilizing characters within the second field for each text string further comprises:

instructions for sorting the plurality of text strings utilizing characters within the first field as a first-order sort key; and

instructions, for text strings containing the same characters within the first field, for sorting the plurality of text strings utilizing characters within the second field as a second-order sort key.

24. The computer program product of claim 17, wherein the instructions for displaying the plurality of text strings in a sorted order utilizing the characters within the first field for each text string further comprises:

instructions for displaying ideographs within the first field of each of the plurality of text strings in an order sorted by syllabary spellings of the corresponding ideographs.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Technical Field

The present invention relates in general to sorting text strings and in particular to sorting text strings in a culturally correct order where the text string language does not provide pronunciation information and/or data processing system character codes are unsorted for the text string language. Still more particularly, the present invention relates to sorting text strings based on either pronunciation or user-defined sort orders artificially promoting selected text strings while displaying pronunciation- or sort order-independent representations of the text strings.

2. Description of the Related Art

Multinational companies often run information system (IS) networks which span multiple locales spread around the globe. To maximize the usefulness of such networks, operations within each country tend to run in the local language of the country. Where possible, names of abstract objects in user applications are in the local language and match the local language organization, city, or human names which the abstract objects represent. In the case of system management software, often abstract objects would represent each of a global enterprise's local offices.

For offices located in Japan, objects would be named in Japanese. However, Japanese is a logosyllabic or ideographic language which does not have an alphabet representing simple sounds, but instead has a very large character set with symbols ("ideographs") corresponding to concepts and objects rather than simple sounds. For instance, the Joyo Kanji List (Kanji for Daily Use) adopted for the Japanese language in 1981 includes 1945 symbols.

In Japanese, the same ideograph may have multiple meanings and/or pronunciations. For instance, the symbol depicted in FIG. 4A may be pronounced either "hayashi" or "rin" (or "lin"); and the characters depicted in FIG. 4B may be pronounced "suga no," "suga ya," "kan no," or "kan ya." This circumstance is based in part on the history of the Japanese language, in which the Kanji characters were adopted from the Chinese language. Thus, for example, the "rin" symbol depicted in FIG. 4A is On-Yomi, basically a simulation of the Chinese pronunciation when the character was imported to Japan, while "hayashill" is Kun-Yomi, a Japanese word assigned to the character which has the same meaning.

A culturally correct sort order for names represented by identical ideographs might be based on pronunciation. However, ideographs or data processing system codes (e.g., Unicode codes) representing ideographs generally provide no information as to the correct pronunciation. Sorting a plurality of abstract objects by name, therefore, may result in an incorrect sort order being displayed.

An additional and independent complication arises in sorting abstract objects by name from the fact that the same Kanji character set is largely shared by the Chinese, Japanese and other Asian languages. The UNICODE Han unification has reordered the Kanji characters for Chinese, unsorting them for Japanese, as well as for Vietnamese and Korean.

Yet another independent sorting problem is that frequently a need arises to alter the collation sequence of a list or to create a second-order list. For instance, it may be desirable to sort a list of users alphabetically within each hierarchical level of an enterprise. That is, the user list is to be sorted with the enterprise's principal officer first, followed by other officers sorted alphabetically and then by staff members sorted alphabetically. Currently names are "floated" to the top of a sorted list by inserting an extraneous character with a low sort value at the front of the string (e.g., "_Frank Moss"). However, the extraneous characters will normally be displayed in the sorted list.

It would be desirable, therefore, to provide a mechanism for sorting Japanese text strings in a culturally correct order. It would further be advantageous if the mechanism could be employed to sort Kanji character strings in a culturally correct order despite the sorting order employed by character sets. It would also be advantageous to sort text strings in a user-defined sort order with selected strings artificially promoted without displaying the mechanism by which the selected text strings are promoted.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is therefore one object of the present invention to provide an improved method, system and computer program product for sorting text strings.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a method, system and computer program product for sorting text strings in a culturally correct order where the text string language does not provide pronunciation information and/or data processing system character codes are unsorted for the text string language.

It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a method, system and computer program product for sorting text strings based on either pronunciation or user-defined sort orders artificially promoting selected text strings while displaying representations of the text strings which are independent of pronunciation or artificial sort order mechanisms.

The foregoing objects are achieved as is now described. A multi-field text string contains display characters in a first field and sort characters in a second field. For ideographic languages such as Japanese, the display characters may be Kanji symbols for the text string while the sort characters are phonetic syllabary representations of the Kanji symbols. A plurality of such multi-field text strings may then be sorted by the contents of the second field rather than the contents of the first. Despite both the multiple pronunciations or meanings associated with the same Kanji symbols in Japanese and the unsorted ordering of Kanji symbols within the character set for Japanese, a culturally correct sort order is achieved for the multi-field text strings. Additionally, the contents of the second field may be altered to artificially promote a specific item within the sort order, while displaying the sorted text strings utilizing the contents of the first field. The mechanism for promoting particular text strings within the sort order does not interfere with user viewing of the displayed text strings.

The above as well as additional objects, features, and advantages of the present invention will become apparent in the following detailed written description.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The novel features believed characteristic of the invention are set forth in the appended claims. The invention itself however, as well as a preferred mode of use, further objects and advantages thereof, will best be understood by reference to the following detailed description of an illustrative embodiment when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein:

FIG. 1 depicts a diagram of a data processing system in which a preferred embodiment of the present invention may be implemented;

FIG. 2 is a diagram of a multi-field text string class employed in sorting text strings in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3 depicts a high level flowchart for a process also of employing a multi-field text string class to sort text strings in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention;

FIGS. 4A-4B are ideographs having identical pronunciations.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

With reference now to the figures, and in particular with reference to FIG. 1, a block diagram of a data processing system in which a preferred embodiment of the present invention may be implemented is depicted. Data processing system 100 may be, for example, one of the Aptiva.RTM. available from International Business Machines Corporation of Armonk, New York. Data processing system 100 includes a processor 102, which in the exemplary embodiment is connected to a level two (L2) cache 104, which is connected in turn to a system bus 106. In the exemplary embodiment, data processing system 100 includes graphics adapter 118 connected to system bus 106, receiving user interface information for display 120.

Also connected to system bus 106 is system memory 108 and input/output (I/O) bus bridge 110. I/O bus bridge 110 couples I/O bus 112 to system bus 106, relaying and/or transforming data transactions from one bus to the other. Peripheral devices such as nonvolatile storage 114, which may be a hard disk drive, and keyboard/pointing device 116, which may include a conventional mouse, a trackball, or the like, are connected to I/O bus 112.

The exemplary embodiment shown in FIG. 1 is provided solely for the purposes of explaining the invention and those skilled in the art will recognize that numerous variations are possible, both in form and function. For instance, data processing system 100 might also include a compact disk read-only memory (CD-ROM) or digital video disk (DVD) drive, a sound card and audio speakers, and numerous other optional components. All such variations are believed to be within the spirit and scope of the present invention. Data processing system 100 and the Java implementation examples below are provided solely as examples for the purposes of explanation and are not intended to imply architectural limitations. Those skilled in the art will recognize the numerous programming languages which may be utilized, all of which are believed to be embraced within the spirit and scope of the invention.

Referring to FIG. 2, a diagram of a multi-field text string class employed in sorting text strings in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention is depicted. A fundamental problem in multinational computing environments which need to display data in multiple human languages is that a spoken word generally encapsulates information in multiple aspects or attributes, such as through the word's meaning, from context, and/or from inflection. When reduced to a visual or electronic representation for manipulation or display in a data processing system, the word may lose some attributes and much of the associated meaning. Most importantly for data processing systems, a visual representation of a word may give no clues as to the correct translation or pronunciation of the word or the proper placement of a word within a specified sort order. International String ("IString") class 202 may be employed to address this problem.

IString class 202 is preferably a Java class similar to the Java String class, which behaves like the String class by including similar methods. Most of the original behavior of the String class should be preserved, with additional functionality added and utilized only as needed. IString class 202 is a datatype which captures some of the meaning of spoken words which is normally lost when the word is reduced to a visual representation. IString class 202 is preferably utilized for all object names and system messages within a system.

The IString class 202 structure includes three different strings for each name, message, data, or text object: a baseString 204, a sortString 206, and an altString 208. BaseString 204 is the string within IString class 202 employed by default in the user interface display and may contain any text, usually the original text entered by the user in the local language where the IString object is created. SortString 206 may also be any text and is employed to allow correct sorting of non-phonetic languages and languages which are difficult to sort based only on the binary value of baseString 204. AltString 208 may be any text but should conventionally be filled with a latin character set representation of the pronunciation of the data contained in baseString 204. Thus, IString class 202 includes the original text (baseString 204), a sort key (sortString 206), and a pronunciation key (altString 208) for object names, system messages, and other data.

When implemented in Java, a constructor for an IString class 202 object may be composed of the following fields:

/** The base text String */

protected String baseString;

/** The related text String for proper collation */

protected String sortString;

/** The related alternate text String (pronunciation key) */

protected String altString;

/** The source locale, as an ISO-3166 code; used for collation */

protected String sourceLocale;

/** The source language, as an ISO-639 code */

protected String sourceLanguage;

/** The source variant defined for EBCIDIC and case mapping */

protected String sourceVariant;

/** The target locale, as an ISO-3166 code */

protected String targetLocale;

/** The target language, as an ISO-639 code */

protected String targetLanguage;

/** The target variant defined for EBCIDIC and case mapping */

protected String targetvariant;

Complete listings of the upper-case, two letter ISO Country Codes defined by ISO-3166 and the lower-case, two letter ISO Language Codes defined by ISO-639 are readily available from a variety of sources on the Internet

Table I illustrates how data within the IString data type 202 looks when represented as a table:

    TABLE I
    Field                Type       Data
    baseString        Java String   The user's text
    sortString        Java String   Language/locale dependent
    altString         Java String   Language/locale dependent
    sourceLocale      Java String   ISO-3166 code, example "US"
    sourceLanguage    Java String   ISO-639 code, example "en"
    sourceVariant     Java String   Variant code
    targetLocale      Java String   ISO-3166 code, example "JP"
    targetLanguage    Java String   ISO-639 code, example "ja"
    targetVariant     Java String   Variant code

    struct IString{
    string baseString;   //base test String
    string sortString;   //related text String for collation
    string altString;    //related alternate text String (pronunciation)
    string sourceLocale; //source locale as an ISO-3166 code
    string sourceLanguage; //source language as an ISO-639 code
    string sourceVariant; //source variant code
    string targetLocale; //target locale as an ISO-3166 code
    string targetLanguage; //target language as an ISO-639 code
    string targetVariant; //target variant code
    }

          TABLE II
          Field                    Type          Data
          baseString           Java String       Hetherington
          sortString           Java String       Hetherington
          altString            Java String       Hetherington
          sourceLocale         Java String       US
          sourceLanguage       Java String       en
          targetLocale         Java String       US
          targetLanguage       Java String       en

        TABLE III
        Field                  Type        Data
        baseString         Java String     {character pullout}
        sortString         Java String     {character pullout}
        altString          Java String     David Kumhyr
        sourceLocale       Java String     RU
        sourceLanguage     Java String     ru
        targetLocale       Java String     US
        targetLanguage     Java String     en

          TABLE IV
          Field                    Type          Data
          baseString           Java String       <Kanji>
          sortString           Java String       {character pullout}
          altString            Java String       hayashi
          sourceLocale         Java String       JP
          sourceLanguage       Java String       ja
          targetLocale         Java String       US
          targetLanguage       Java String       en

• Inventors
  Hetherington, David James; Kumhyr, David Bruce;
• Assignee
  International Business Machines Corporation (Armonk, NY)
• Published
  May-14-2002
• Current US Classes:
  704/8
  707/7
  715/535
• Application #
  211808
• International Classes
  G06F 017/20
• Field of Search
  704/1 704/8 704/9 704/10 707/7.101 707/530 707/531 707/535 707/536 345/467
• Examiner
  Edouard; Patrick N.
• Agent
  LaBaw; Jeffrey S. Bracewell & Patterson, L.L.P.
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