Table allocating apparatus and method

Abstract

A table allocating apparatus for producing a layout of a table. In the apparatus, both of a linear equation for representing a column width of a table or a row height thereof by employing a parameter, and a section constraint condition corresponding to a combination of conditions for satisfying the parameter in order that a height or a width of a rectangle becomes constant when each of texts arranged in a table item column is allocated are set, then a layout evaluation formula expressed by the linear equation with employment of the parameter and indicative of better states of a layout for each of the section constraint conditions is calculated. Further, such a linear programming problem that the section constraint condition is used as a restriction condition and the layout evaluation formula corresponding to each of the section constraint conditions is used as an objective function is solved, thereby obtaining a set of an optimum layout evaluation value and a parameter corresponding to the optimum layout evaluation value, or an infeasible solution of the problem, and when the set of the optimum layout evaluation value and the parameter corresponding thereto is acquired, a set of the optimum layout evaluation value and the parameter corresponding thereto based on the acquired result among all of the linear programming problems are retrieved, whereby a table layout is determined based upon the set of the optimum layout evaluation value and the parameter corresponding thereto.