Table Content Comparison via Text Array Segmentation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional document comparison systems fail to contextualize changes in table content, incorrectly marking changes in table structure as content changes, which limits users' ability to identify contextually relevant changes in documents.
Innovation Solution
The Intelligent Algorithm recognizes and disregards changes in table structure that do not affect content context by creating text arrays of table content, comparing them, and displaying only actual word modifications, using a dynamic programming matrix to identify and separate content changes from form and structure changes.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If conventional document comparison systems compare information at a cellular level in tables, then they can identify all changes including structural modifications, but they incorrectly mark structural changes as content changes, reducing measurement precision
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the table comparison process into two distinct phases: structural analysis (identifying merged/split cells) and content analysis (comparing text arrays). This segmentation allows the system to treat structural changes and content changes separately, preventing structural modifications from being misidentified as content changes while maintaining accurate content detection.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces text arrays as an intermediary representation that extracts and normalizes content from table cells before comparison. By converting table cell contents into standardized text arrays, the system creates a mediator layer that separates the comparison logic from the table structure, enabling precise content change identification independent of structural modifications.
2Reliability
If conventional systems display all cell content changes in redline documents, then they provide comprehensive change tracking, but they display irrelevant structural changes alongside actual content changes, increasing device complexity and reducing ease of operation
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts structural change information from the overall change set and handles it separately from content changes. By taking out structural modifications (merged/split cells) from the content comparison process, the system can display only relevant content changes in the redline document, filtering out irrelevant structural noise while maintaining complete change tracking capability.
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of comparing tables directly and then filtering changes, the patent inverts the approach by first extracting and comparing text arrays, then mapping changes back to the original table structure. This inversion allows the system to identify content changes independently of structural changes, displaying only meaningful content modifications to users.
3Device complexity
If conventional comparison methods treat merged or split cells as deletions or additions, then they maintain simplicity in the comparison algorithm, but they lose information about the actual content context, reducing loss of information
Solution Approach 1:
The patent performs preliminary actions by identifying merged and split cells before conducting the content comparison. By detecting structural modifications in advance and adjusting the comparison logic accordingly, the system maintains algorithmic simplicity while preserving content context information, as the preliminary structural analysis guides the subsequent content comparison process.
Data Source
AI summary
A system, method and computer program product for comparison of content within tables, separate from the form and structure of those tables; including identifying tables in a first and second document, creating respective text arrays of content of the tables from the first and second documents, comparing the content of the respective text arrays to determine differences between the content of the tables, and displaying the determined differences between the content of the tables, regardless of form or structure of the tables.