Regular Expression Transformation for Message Filtering
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Complex regular expressions consume significant processing resources due to their large and intricate nature, making them inefficient for tasks like filtering electronic messages or searching documents.
Innovation Solution
The technique involves transforming regular expressions into key terms and conditionally executing them by canonicalizing terms, which simplifies the processing by identifying essential key terms and preventing unnecessary execution based on their presence in the text.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If regular expressions are used to identify patterns in text, then pattern matching capability is improved, but processing resources are consumed excessively
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments a complex regular expression into multiple smaller sub-expressions or tokens. Each segment can be evaluated independently, allowing the system to process only relevant portions of the text rather than executing the entire complex regular expression, thereby reducing processing resource consumption while maintaining pattern matching capability.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent performs preliminary analysis of the regular expression to identify key terms, patterns, or segments before actual text processing. This preliminary action allows the system to prepare evaluation criteria in advance, enabling faster and more efficient text matching without repeatedly processing the entire complex regular expression structure.
2Reliability
If complex regular expressions are executed to filter text, then filtering accuracy is improved, but execution time increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent divides the complex regular expression into separable segments that can be evaluated independently. This segmentation allows the system to execute only the necessary segments based on text content, maintaining filtering accuracy while significantly reducing execution time by avoiding unnecessary processing of irrelevant segments.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements partial execution of regular expressions by evaluating segments conditionally. Instead of always executing the complete regular expression, the system performs partial action by executing only those segments that are relevant to the current text being processed, thereby reducing execution time while preserving filtering accuracy through selective segment evaluation.
3Productivity
If regular expressions are simplified by canonicalization, then processing efficiency is improved, but expression flexibility may be reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies canonicalization by changing parameters of regular expression segments, such as normalizing case, removing redundant escape characters, or standardizing syntax. These parameter changes simplify the segments for more efficient processing while the system maintains the ability to handle various text formats through the transformed segments, thus improving processing efficiency while preserving necessary flexibility.
Data Source
AI summary
Techniques to transform regular expressions are described. An apparatus may comprise a processor circuit and a key terms identifying module operative on the processor circuit to generate a set of one or more regular expression key terms from enabled features of a regular expression based on a set of configuration parameters, and filter one or more electronic messages using the set of regular expression key terms. Other embodiments are described and claimed.