JPH05289920A - Database search method and system - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] [Purpose] The search operation is facilitated by visually specifying the search range of the database. [Arrangement] The items of data stored in the database 206 are displayed on the display device 201. In response to the selection input of the item to be searched among the displayed items, the distribution state of the data of the item stored in the database is graphically displayed on the display device based on the statistical information on the selected item. In response to the designation of the search range on the displayed graphic, an instruction for accessing the database is generated, and the instruction is executed to retrieve the data according to the designation of the search range.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method and system for interactively searching a database.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art When searching a database, a method of directly searching a database using a database operating language and a method of interactively searching like QBE (Query-By-Example) are used. QBE is C.I. J. Date by "An Introduction
to Database ", Addison-Wes
ley publisher, published in 1990, pages 351 to 355
As disclosed on the page, the search condition is specified for the column of the database to be searched, and the database is searched. Also, from page 492 to page 499 of the same book, a method relating to a database search by a menu system or a form format is disclosed. The feature of QBE is that the attributes of the database, that is, the table name and the column name are displayed on the screen, and the user inputs the search conditions on the display screen.
For this reason, if the user knows the table name, the column name is displayed on the display screen, and it is not necessary to remember detailed contents such as the column name for the table. Further, the database can be easily operated by using the simple operation language provided by QBE without inputting a complicated database operation language such as SQL described on pages 135 to 165 of the same book.

In addition to the database search described above, there is a database search for text data used in the information search field. In order to search the text data in the target database for the text data satisfying a certain condition, a search condition expression corresponding to the condition is specified to search the database. In addition, by further adding a search condition expression to the search result, the range of the search target is narrowed down, and by repeating it, the desired text data is obtained.
Get the data.

A map information system is an extended system of the above. The map information system obtains detailed information while narrowing down the display range corresponding to a designated point on the screen.

Further, a method of displaying data in a scatter diagram in which one record corresponds to one point and retrieving the record in correspondence with designation of a point on the scatter diagram is disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 1-231175. There is.

[0006]

In the prior art, it is difficult to set the search range for a database with a huge amount of data. Generally, a user who searches a database needs to implicitly know what kind of value and distribution are contained in the searched column. Here, the database is a table-based set of data, and the table includes one column heading row and zero or more rows having data values. The column heading row specifies one or more named columns. No two columns can have the same name. Each data row consists of multiple columns with only one value for that column. The set of values that can be taken by the data in each column is a concept generally called a domain. In the interactive search represented by QBE, the user operates on the premise of knowledge about the distribution of the values in the domain. The user searches the data by specifying the conditional operator and the conditional value in the search target column on the screen.

[0007] In a map information system, it is common practice to specify a specific area of a map screen for searching. However, in map search, the shapes of objects such as roads and buildings displayed on the screen are visualized, the search range is specified for the objects visualized on the screen, and the objects are limited. , Perform a search operation and get detailed information.

The method disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 1-231175 is convenient when searching for a specific record in a simple database in which one record corresponds to each point in the scatter diagram. In a general database search, it is necessary to output the contents of a plurality of records satisfying a certain search condition or the relationship between the contents, which is inconvenient in the method using the scatter diagram.

Further, generally, business data is metaphorized in a form such as a graph, which is a visualization of a search result.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a database search method and a database such that the search range can be visually specified on the display screen and the operability is improved.

[0011]

The above object is achieved as follows. Display the items of data stored in the database on the display device. Input the item to be searched among the displayed items from the input device. In response to the selection input, the distribution state of the data of the selected item is graphically displayed on the display device based on the statistical information regarding the selected item stored in the database. The designation of the search range on the displayed graphic is received from the input device. In response to the designation of the search range, an instruction for accessing the database is generated and executed to search for data according to the designated search range.

[0012]

The operation of the above will be described. This search method and system displays the distribution information of the data in the database displayed graphically (graph) on the display screen. Here, the distribution information means Gabrielle Wirkowski and Da.
vid Kull co-authored "DB2 Design &De"
development Guide ”, ADDison-
Wesley Co., Ltd., 1990, pp. 405 to 40
As shown on page 9, it is auxiliary information for providing a selection criterion of access path (for example, index to be used) for SQL statement, and distribution information or range for each range obtained by dividing possible values of the column. Distribution information. This distribution information is acquired by a utility and stored in a dictionary or the like as described in the above-mentioned document. By displaying this distribution information, the user can grasp the distribution state of the data for a certain column in the table. By grasping the information, the range of data that the user wants to know in detail is determined. Next, the part of the data is designated on the figure (graph) display. The database operation system automatically generates a search condition expression corresponding to the specified range. The user who has determined the search range actually searches the database by instructing the system to execute the automatically generated search condition expression. As described above, the database can be searched from the graphic display.

[0013]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. Although the above-mentioned SQL language is used for description in the embodiments, other database operation languages may be used.

To show the outline of this embodiment, FIG. 1 shows a window 101 on a display device for operating a database.
Indicates. The database operation window 101 is a screen for displaying information about the database to be operated. The table list 102 is a list of tables stored in the database system. The list may be displayed in a visual representation such as an icon. The column list 103 is a list of columns of a specific table, and the column list of the employee table is displayed in FIG. The column distribution information window 104 shows possible values (domain value) of the data of a specific column in the column list.
2 is a distribution graph of statistical information, that is, the number of cases in the database. One of the features of the present embodiment is that, in response to the designation of the range for the metaphor of the table visualized by the graphic (graph) expression, that is, the graphic (graph), the SQL sentence corresponding to the designated search target range is generated, This is to display in the SQL statement execution window 106 and output the execution result of the generated SQL statement by the database management system to the search result window 109.

The operation flow of the database user will be described with reference to the example shown in FIG. Suppose that the user wants to grasp the contents by using the correlation diagram regarding the age and salary of the employee. The user selects the employee table in the table list window 102. As a result, the column list corresponding to the employee table is output on the database operation window 101. When the item to be searched in the column list, in this case, the age is selected, the column distribution information window 104 is displayed. In this display, the section data in the age database is used, for example, 10-19 ,. ． ． The number of persons (number of cases) is displayed on the X axis on the Y axis of the age section from 70 to 79, and the distribution state of the number of data relating to the age column of the employee table can be understood. When the user specifies a target age range on the displayed graph, the database operation system generates a data operation statement according to the specified range. In FIG. 1, the section 20-29 is designated, and as a result, the SQL sentence 107 is generated. The user can also modify and extend the generated SQL statement 107 as needed. The generated SQL statement is executed according to the designation of the execute button 108 of the SQL statement execution window 106.
The result of the execution is displayed in the search result window 109.

FIG. 2 shows the configuration of the database system. The display device 201 displays various operation contents for the database system. Database operation system 20
2 displays on the display device 201, receives an operation request instructed by a screen instructing device (pointing device such as a mouse) 203, performs an operation corresponding to the instruction content, and sends a database to the database management system 204 as necessary. Request the operation. The database management system 204 is a system that receives a request from the database operation system 202 and operates a database. The database management system 204 has a function of storing data in the database and operating the database in response to a search, update, or addition operation request from the user. It also has the function of acquiring column statistical information. The dictionary 205 includes a file that stores definition information of the database and a file that stores statistical information. The statistical information does not need to be included in the dictionary, and may be managed separately as a statistical information management file. The database 206 is a file that can be shared by a plurality of users and is constructed according to the database structure defined by the user. The memory 207 is an area for arranging control information used by the database operation system 202. The processing device 208 is a processing device for executing the present system.

FIG. 3 is an outline of the dictionary 205. The dictionary is also made into a database and stores various database definition information defined by the user. In the SQL statement, the user defines the structure of the database in the following format. CREATE TABLE employee (name CHARCTER 32 years old SMALLINT annual income INTERGER gender CHARTER 1); The above-mentioned format is actually made into a dictionary by definition information 301 of the table shown in FIG. 3, definition information 302 of columns and statistical information (column distribution information). ). The definition information includes a column name 303, a column attribute 304, and other attributes 306. The statistical information (column distribution information) 305 is the statistical value of each column, that is, the data section 30.
7 and the number of cases 308 in that section. The section 307 has a format of lower section value-upper section value, and the section value is set to a range given in advance for each column by the user or is automatically determined by a utility described later. Number of cases 308
Is periodically obtained with a utility for the database. Therefore, the column distribution information holds the accurate data distribution status at the time of utility acquisition. After a certain period of time has passed since the database was operated, it does not always match the distribution status in the database. However, if there is a mechanism that reflects the updated contents of the database online, it is possible to obtain the accurate distribution status at that time.
Even if there is no reflection, if the database capacity is sufficiently large, the accuracy of the distribution graph will be reduced to some extent and the influence will be small. In this embodiment, it is more important to visualize the initial state for data narrowing down than to improve the search accuracy. FIG. 20 shows the process of acquiring the distribution information of the database. Regarding this processing, the above-mentioned Gabrielle
"Wiorkowski and David Kull"
DB2 Design & Development G
"", ADDISON-WESLEY, 1990
The details are shown on pages 405 to 409 of the yearly publication, and therefore will be outlined. Determine the database for distribution information acquisition (step 2001), search the specified database and acquire the distribution information (step 200).
2) Output the acquired distribution information to the dictionary (step 2)
003). The setting of the section value of the distribution information when acquiring the distribution information is specified by the user or automatically determined by this processing.

The outline of the database system of this embodiment has been described above. Next, the outline of the display screen and the processing corresponding thereto will be described.

FIG. 6 shows the relation of the control information used when the database system operates. These pieces of control information are arranged on the memory 207. The system management information 600 is system management information and is a pointer 602 to table list information.
A pointer 601 to the database search result table is held. The table list information 603 is a management table that holds information about tables to be operated. This management table has a table name 604,
A column information table display position 605, a pointer 606 to the column information,
There is a pointer 607 to the option information. Column information 61
Reference numeral 3 is a management table that holds information about the columns of a table, including column names 614, column attributes 615, and pointers 616 to column distribution information.
Composed of. The column distribution information 621 holds information on the number of items in the table for the data distribution of a column, that is, the range of each domain of the column. The column distribution information 621 is a section value 622, the number of cases 62
3, upper left coordinate 624, upper right coordinate 625, section start angle 626 on a circle, and section end angle 627. The option information 617 stores options at the time of displaying the column distribution information, and includes a display attribute 618, a display order 619, and a display graph format 620. The order of the rows is the order corresponding to each column name of the column information. .. Database search result table 608
Holds the result information of the SQL sentence generated by this system,
It is used for displaying search results.

FIG. 7 is an outline of processing of this database system. The outline of the processing will be described below with reference to FIGS. 1 and 4. When the database operation system 202 starts processing, the initialization processing (step 701) initializes the environment required by this system and displays the database operation window 101 on the screen. After that, the definition information 301 of the table authorized by the user who uses the interactive screen for the database management system is searched from the dictionary 205, and the result is held in the form of table list information 603 on the memory. Because of the above processing, it is necessary to input the name of the interactive user and determine the authority, but this is not the essence of the present embodiment, and will be omitted. After the table list information 603 is created, the table list window 10 is displayed in the database operation window 101.
2 and the table list 110 therein are displayed. List of tables 11
0 is a list of table names.

When the above initial processing is completed, the database operation system waits for an instruction from the dialogue user. The instruction from the dialogue user is input to the database operation system from the screen instruction device 203 in a format called event information. The event information is state information such as the X, Y coordinate position (designated position) on the screen of the pointing device and the pressing of a button added to the pointing device. As for the status information, (1) the button added to the screen indicating device is pressed. (2) Hold the same button. (3) The button was pushed up. (4) The same button was pressed twice within a certain period of time. It is information such as. The above is a state in which (1) is called click (2) is dragged (4) is called double click. Waiting for this event information to be input is the event information input 702.

When an event occurs, after determining which position on the screen and in what state the event was issued, if the event is on a specific window and the indicating device state requires some operation, the operation request is handled. Perform processing to In the initial state, table list window 1
Only 02 is displayed. In this case, the user selects the table to be operated. For example, in FIG. 4, the employee table is selected (hatched portion). This processing is determined by the table list window determination 704 of FIG.
Control passes to 5.

The process of the table list window process 705 is shown in FIG.
Will be described in detail. After an event occurs and it is determined that the event position is on the table list window, a determination process 801 is performed to determine whether the specified position is the table list 110. Each table name has a selectable range on the display screen, and when an operation is instructed by the screen instructing device within that range, it is determined that the instructed table name is selected. If it is determined to be a table list and the state information is double-clicked (802), it is determined that the process is the display process for the column list window of the table (designated table) with the selected table name, and the column list window 103 for the designated table is displayed. To do this, the column definition information 302 in the dictionary is searched for the column definition information related to the designated table, and the contents are transferred to each field of the column information 613 on the memory (805). This processing is actually the definition information 302 of the column in the searched dictionary.
The column name 303 and the column attribute 304 are transferred to the column name 614 and the column attribute 615 of the column information 613 on the memory 207. Process 80 for displaying the column list window 103 based on this information
6 and S including the SELECT * FROM table name
The QL sentence execution window is displayed (807), and the table list process is terminated.

After the column list window 103 is displayed,
The user searches for data in the column based on the distribution information.

In FIG. 4, the age is selected in the column list window 103 (hatched portion). In this case, the event is input and the designated position is the column list window 1
It is judged whether or not it is on the column list window 103 (706), and on the column list window 103, the column list processing 707 is called.

Column list window processing 707 using FIG.
Will be described in detail. The designated column is determined from the designated position of the event that has occurred (901), and if the event is a double click by the pointing device (902), the column distribution information selection option processing 905 is called. After that, the column distribution information of the column related to the designated column is searched from the dictionary to create the column distribution information 621 (904). This is the statistical information (column distribution information in the dictionary) 30 in the dictionary corresponding to the specified column in the specified table.
5 is searched, and the search result is transferred to the corresponding field of the column distribution information on the memory. Actually searched statistical information 3
The section 307 of 05 and the number of cases 308 are transferred to the section value 622 and the number of cases 623 of the column distribution information 621 on the memory. Next, the column distribution information display 905 is called, and the column distribution information window 1
04 is displayed.

Column distribution information selection option processing 903
The column distribution information display 905 will be described with reference to FIGS. 10 to 13.

The column distribution information selection option is an option for selecting in what format the column distribution information window is displayed. The user display format of this option is the column distribution information selection option window 402 in FIG.
Is. FIG. 10 will be described with reference to FIG.

Column distribution information selection option processing 9 in FIG.
When 03 is started, the column distribution information selection option window 402 is displayed. In the column distribution information selection option window 402, a number distribution button 404, an access frequency button 405, an ascending order button 406, a descending order button 40.
7, a bar graph button 408, a pie graph button 409, and a display button 403 are displayed. After the column distribution information selection option window is displayed, an event input 1002 waits for an event input. As a result of the event input, it is judged whether or not the specified position is on the column distribution information selection option window 402 (1003), and if it is on the display of the option, the specified position specifies the display attribute, the display order, and the display graph format. If it does (1004-1011), the setting corresponding to each option is set in the corresponding part of the option information 617 (1014-1019), and the input of event information is awaited again. If the designated position of the event information is on the display instruction button 403, the column distribution information selection option window is erased (1012), and the column information selection option processing ends.

Next, an outline of the column distribution information display 905 is shown in FIG.
This will be described with reference to FIGS. The column distribution information display 905 displays the column distribution information window 104 according to the option specified in the previous column distribution information selection option. The display order 619 of the option information 617 is checked (1102), if the descending order is designated, the section values 622 of the column distribution information 621 are sorted in the descending order (1103), and if the ascending order is designated, the section values 622 are sorted in the ascending order (1104). Next, the format 620 of the display graph of the option information 617 is determined (1105). If the bar graph is designated, the bar graph display process is performed (1106), and if the pie graph is designated, the pie graph display process (1107) is called.

An outline of display processing in the case of bar graph display will be described with reference to FIG.

In the bar graph display 1106 of FIG. 12,
Bar graph display area in the window, upper left coordinates (XL, Y
L) and the lower right coordinates (XR, YR) are determined (1201).
Since the bar graph display area is normally displayed at a fixed position on the screen, a standard value is determined in advance from the screen size and held. Next, the maximum value of the column distribution information 621 in the number 623 of cases is determined (1202), XZ (display length per case of X axis) and YZ (width of bar graph of one section) are determined, and each section is determined. The upper left coordinate and lower right coordinate determination processing 1203 is performed. The left and right coordinates of each section calculated in this process are the column distribution information 621.
Are held in the upper left coordinate 624 and the lower right coordinate 625 of the. The X-axis and Y-axis of the bar graph and the scales of the axes (section value and number of cases) are displayed on the window (1207), and one bar area of the bar graph is drawn on the window according to the upper left coordinate 624 and the upper right coordinate 625. It is easy to identify each bar area by color-coding each area when drawing. (1208 to 1211)
As a result, a bar graph is displayed on the display device on the column distribution information window 104 of FIG.

Next, the outline of display processing in the case of pie chart display will be described with reference to FIG.

In the pie chart display 1107 of FIG. 13,
In order to determine the pie chart display area in the window, the center coordinates (XC, YC) of the circle and the radius R of the circle are determined (1901) for drawing the circle. Next, the number of column distribution information 621 is 6
The total sum of the 22 sections is calculated (1302). Draw the pie chart and the start line (the straight line connecting the coordinates (XC, YC + R) and ((XC, YC)) determined above. To draw the straight line that divides each distribution interval value on the circle, Coordinates are calculated, and the coordinates of the section line on the circle (xn, yn)
To decide. At that time, the calculated section angle is held as the section end angle 627 on the circle, and the section angle of the previous section is held as the section start angle 626 on the circle (1305).

Next, a straight line (section line) connecting the circle coordinates of the section line and the center coordinates of the circle is drawn. Here, the distinctiveness of each section is improved by color-coding the area within the arc delimited by the section line (1306). Each processing of the above 1305 and 1306 is repeated for the section distribution sentence of the column distribution (1304, 1307). As a result, the column distribution graph is drawn in the pie chart format on the column distribution information window 104.

Next, referring to FIG. 14, the database search using the column distribution information window will be described. When an event for the column distribution information displayed as shown in FIG. 7 occurs, the column distribution information window process 709 is performed by the determination process 708 of whether the specified position is within the column distribution information window.
Is selected.

FIG. 14 shows the processing for the displayed column distribution information window. The user performs a search range designation process for the displayed column distribution information. A process 1402 is performed to determine whether the designated position of the event is the operator menu position, and if not, a search range designation process 1403 is performed.
For example, in FIG. 5, the age of 20-29 is selected and the retrieval is designated.

Details of the search range designation processing will be described below with reference to FIG.

When the search range designation processing 1403 is called, it is judged whether the display graph format 620 of the option information 617 of the processing target column is a bar graph designation (1501),
If a bar graph is designated, bar graph range determination processing 1502
Call. When the format of the display graph is the pie chart designation (1503), the pie chart range determination processing 1504 is called.

The bar graph range determination processing will be described with reference to FIG. It is determined whether or not the designated position information of the event is in any of the section ranges of the upper left coordinate 623 and the lower right coordinate 624 (1601-1605). As a result, if it is determined that the range is within a certain section, a conditional expression that column name> = lower section value AND column name <= upper section value is added to the generated SQL statement 107 (1606).

Next, the pie chart range determination processing 1504 when the format of the display graph is a pie chart will be described with reference to FIG. It is determined whether or not the designated position information of the event is within the range of the circle on the pie chart (1702), and if it is within the circle of the pie chart, the pie chart display process indicating which section angle the designated position is within. The section start angle 626 and the section end angle 62 on the circle calculated in 1107 and held in the column distribution information 621
It is judged from No. 7 (1703-1706). If it is determined as a range of a certain section as a result of the section range determination, a conditional expression that column name> = lower section value AND column name <= upper section value is added to the generated SQL statement 107 (170).
7).

Next, a case where the operator menu is selected in the processing for the column distribution information window of FIG. 14 will be described.
When this menu is selected, operator menu processing 1404
Is executed. The operator menu process is called when a conditional expression of another column is added to the generated SQL statement 107 of the SQL statement execution window 106. The operator menu 502 in FIG. 5 is S on the SQL statement execution window 106.
The operator that can be specified next is displayed on the QL sentence. In the case of the embodiment of FIG. 5, although logical operators of AND and OR, parentheses and + // * operators can be specified. If the user specifies any operator on the menu, the column name menu 50
3 is displayed, and when any one of them is selected, the column distribution information window for that column is displayed, and the conditional operation can be added by performing the same operation as described above.

The details of this processing will be described with reference to the operator menu processing shown in FIG. In the column distribution information window process of FIG. 14, the operator menu process 1404 is called when it is determined that the designated position of the event on the column distribution information window is the operator menu (1402). The designated position is the AND button 507 and OR button 5 shown in FIG.
If it is 08, the operator is added to the SQL statement. 12
1801 for the processing outline for adding AND and OR
-1804. After the text addition process is performed, columns other than the column currently being processed are displayed as the column name menu 503 (1806) and the input of an event is awaited (1810).
If an event occurs and the designated position is not the column menu, the next event input is waited again (1811). If it is determined to be the column menu position, the column name of the designated position is determined (18
12) It is judged whether or not the column distribution information window corresponding to the column is displayed (1807), and if there is a window corresponding to the column, the front row display process 1 of the window is performed.
808 is performed, and if the column distribution information window for the column is not displayed, the column distribution information window for the column is displayed. This processing performs column distribution information selection option processing 903, searches the dictionary for column statistical information related to the specified column, and creates column distribution information (18
10) The column distribution information display 905 is performed.

FIG. 19 shows a process of actually retrieving the database by executing the SQL statement generated by repeating the above process.
The SQL statement execution process will be described. The execution of the SQL statement generated from the distribution information of the required columns is executed by instructing the execution button of the SQL statement execution window with the display screen instruction device. If the specified position of the event is the execution button position (1906), the SQL statement is executed. Execution is SQL
The cursor for the sentence is opened (1907), the database is searched until the end of the data, and the search result is held in the database search result table (1908, 1909). The same search result is displayed in the format of the search result window 109 (1910).

[0045]

In the past, in order to perform a search, it was necessary to know the domain for a certain column of the database. However, according to the present invention, the user can search the database without knowledge of the domain of the database. It will be possible. In addition, since the data operation language for searching the database is automatically generated according to the designation of the search range on the display screen of figures (graphs, etc.), the user basically does not need knowledge of the data operation language. The operability can be improved.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 shows an example of a screen of a display device displaying a window for operating a database.

FIG. 2 shows the overall configuration of a database system.

FIG. 3 shows the structure of a dictionary.

FIG. 4 shows a display example of database column selection and column distribution information selection options.

FIG. 5 shows an example of displaying the number of cases by a graph of domain value.

FIG. 6 shows a relation of processing target tables.

FIG. 7 shows a processing flowchart of the database operation system.

FIG. 8 shows a table list processing flowchart.

FIG. 9 shows a column list processing flowchart.

FIG. 10 shows a column distribution information selection option processing flowchart.

FIG. 11 shows a flowchart of column distribution information display processing.

FIG. 12 shows a flowchart of a bar graph display process.

FIG. 13 shows a pie chart display processing flowchart.

FIG. 14 shows a column distribution processing flowchart.

FIG. 15 shows a flowchart of a search range designation process.

FIG. 16 shows a flowchart of a bar graph range determination process.

FIG. 17 shows a pie chart range determination processing flowchart.

FIG. 18 shows an operator menu processing flowchart.

FIG. 19 shows a flowchart of a generated SQL statement execution process.

FIG. 20 shows a flowchart of a statistical information acquisition process.

[Explanation of symbols]

101 is a database visual search window of the database search system. A window 102 displays a list of tables to be searched. Reference numeral 103 is a window that displays a list of columns of the table to be searched. A window 104 displays data distribution information for a certain column. Reference numeral 106 is a window that displays the automatically generated SQL sentence and instruct execution. 107 is an automatically generated SQL sentence. Reference numeral 108 is an instruction button for executing the generated SQL sentence. 109 is the search result

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. An item of data stored in a database is displayed on a display device, and statistical information on the selected item is displayed in response to selection input of an item to be searched among the displayed items. On the basis of the above, the distribution state of the data of the item stored in the database is graphically displayed on the display device, and in response to the designation of the search range on the displayed graphic, an instruction for accessing the database. Is generated and the command is executed to search for data according to the designation of the search range. 2. The database search method according to claim 1, wherein the distribution state divides a range of values that can be taken by the data of the selected item, and displays on the display device based on statistical information for each of the divided ranges. Database search method displayed graphically. 3. The database search method according to claim 1, wherein the graphic display of the distribution state is a bar graph or a pie chart. 4. An input device for selectively inputting an item to be searched from data items stored in a database, and an item of data stored in the database for the selection input. A display device for graphically displaying the distribution state of the data of the item stored in the database based on the statistical information on the selected item, and responding to the designation of the search range on the displayed graphic. And a means for generating an instruction for accessing the database, and a means for executing the instruction to retrieve data according to the designation of the retrieval range.