Thesaurus with compactly stored word groups

Abstract

A thesaurus receives a word and uses a word list to obtain a corresponding number. The corresponding number is then compared with numbers grouped in sequence to represent synonym groups. For each match, information about the group including the matching number is determined based on the sequential position of the matching number. This information may include the group's part of speech, its length, and the positions of its members. The numbers in the group are retrieved and the corresponding synonymous words are obtained, again using the word list. Tables contain data used to determine the information about a group containing a matching number. The groups are sorted by part of speech and one table contains information about the ending position of each part of speech so that a group's part of speech can be determined from the position of any number in it. The groups within each part of speech are sorted by length and another table contains the number of groups of each length so that a group's length and the positions of its numbers can be determined from the position of any number in it. Each group is also sorted by number so that if a candidate number is less than a number being compared, the remaining numbers in that group can be skipped. The groups of equal length within a part of speech are sorted by first number so that if a candidate number is less than the first number of a group, the remaining groups of that length can be skipped. Each number is in one or more parts, at least one of which may be less than a full byte. The full byte is an integral multiple of each part's length, so that each part can be accessed and compared in a single cycle.