METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR RETRIEVAL OF A SEARCH STRING

A skip table is prepared from which a state of a subsequent symbol string and an address of one or plural symbols to be subsequently inputted can be readily determined by making reference to a set of a current symbol string search state and one or plural symbols to be subsequently inputted of the symbol string. When executing searching for the symbol string, data stored in the skip table are looked up to assure the symbol string search by inputting only a minimized number of necessary characters of the symbol string. Necessity of inputting all the characters of the symbol string for searching is eliminated and the processing speed can be increased considerably. A plurality of symbol strings may be searched for.