Text processors such as Adobe Reader, MS Word, UltraEditor and Web browser are widely used at present (hereinafter collectively referred to as a “text processor”). The most frequently used function in a text processor is “searching”, which is to search for a word or a phrase in a text. However, almost all the text processors can only search for an entire expanded phrase specified by a user and not search for any fragment of a phrase, such as an abbreviation character string. Stated in another way, if the user only knows the abbreviation of a phrase but can not completely spell the expanded phrase, the “searching” function may not work. For example, if the user who reads a DB2 SQL reference manual with a text processor wants to start a session about the “RCTE” (which stands for the expanded phrase “Recursive Common Table Expression”), and he only knows the abbreviation character string “RCTE” of the phrase but can not spell the expanded phrase corresponding to the abbreviation, the function of “searching” in the text processor, such as Adobe Reader, MS Word, or the like, can not search in a specified text for the corresponding phrase “Recursive Common Table Expression” in accordance with the abbreviation character string “RCTE” to be searched for as offered by the user.
There are some solutions in the prior art which provide limited in text searching for expanded phrases via an abbreviation character string.
In UltraEditor, “Regular Expressions” is used to search for a corresponding expanded phrase via an abbreviation character string. Since UltraEditor integrates “Regular Expressions” into its searching tool, rules of the “Regular Expression” can be used to create a regular expression by an initial abbreviation of a phrase and some other special characters, and the regular expression is used to search in a text for the expanded phrase corresponding to the abbreviation character string. However, it may be difficult for users who are not conversant with computer technology to grasp “Regular Expressions”, and thus, this function in UltraEditor is not popular with general users. Furthermore, the Adobe Reader, MS Word and almost all the Web browsers could not support the “Regular Expressions”.
A method proposed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,934,767 automatically searches for an abbreviation substring based on preceding and following word delimiters, determines that it is one of a set of abbreviation substrings, and produces an expanded character string by replacing the abbreviation substring with its expanded substring. This method requires a prepared mapping table between the abbreviation substrings and the expanded substrings, which mapping table may vary from one user to another. Consequently, such a method may not be suitable for the general searching function.