Hitachi Software Engineering Company, Ltd.

Shigeru Tago

Junji Yoshii

Tadashi Mizunuma

Katsunori Masaki

The invention provides information concerning records that cannot be retrieved on a search path among databases when the retrieval of search keys for other related databases and records is carried out in a plurality of databases in a chain-reactive manner. In the course of retrieving search keys and records in a chain-reactive manner up to a terminal database, information for identifying a group of search keys and a group of records retrieved through a series of retrieval processing is outputted in one line or one column of a table. When the record retrieved from a certain database in the chain-reactive search procedure does not contain a search key to be entered into a subsequent database, information for identifying a record that does not contain the search key and information for identifying a database having the record is outputted.

Database search information output method

A plurality of database search path candidates are automatically determined and provided. Databases containing information with similar characteristics are divided into groups (hereafter referred to as a 'category group'), and a correlation diagram is created based on links between those category groups. In the diagram, high priority is given to links between category groups constituting a path that has to be passed through due to relevance between the characteristic of databases, and normal priority is given to other links. When a path search is carried out in this diagram, an important path is selected regardless of attributes such as distance between databases or time by carrying out a first path search along the high priority path between category groups.

Method of determining database search path

A user who offered the purchase of a commodity or performed down-loading through a network is charged by a safe method. This charge is executed by sending a plurality of passwords, which can be used only once, to the commodity supplier from the user and by confirming all the passwords by both the supplier and the password maker.

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Tokyo, Japan

Shigeru Tago