The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Mar. 27, 2012
Filed:
Dec. 31, 2009
Toshio Shinjo, Chiba, JP;
Mitsuhiro Kokubun, Chiba, JP;
Toshio Shinjo, Chiba, JP;
Mitsuhiro Kokubun, Chiba, JP;
S. Grants Co., Ltd., Chiba, JP;
Abstract
Provided is a search method which is appropriate for handling a don't-care bit. A coupled node tree comprises a root node and a node pair, the node pair being a branch node and leaf node, or a pair of branch nodes, or a pair of leaf nodes located in adjacent storage areas. The branch node includes a discrimination bit position of a search key for the bit string search, which key is encoded so as to distinguish between don't-care bits and significant bits, and position information indicating a position of a primary node, which is one node of a node pair of a link target. A leaf node includes an index key which is a bit string in the status of either being or not being encoded. A search that takes in account the don't-care bit is performed by repeatedly linking in sequence to one of the nodes of a node pair that is the link target in accordance with the bit value of the search key at the discrimination bit position of a branch node until a leaf node is reached, and by tracing back up the path to the leaf node as necessary.