Estimation of document structure

1. A method for estimating document structure of an unstructured document, comprising:

extracting one or more candidate elements describing a logical document structure from an unstructured document;

grouping the one or more candidate elements into a group;

building one or more trees, representing the logical document structure of the unstructured document, for the group, each tree having a root node and a leaf node selected from the candidate elements in the group; and

pruning the one or more trees while leaving a path from the root node to the leaf node to identify an unbranched tree representing a partial structure of the document, the pruning being based on whether a text in the unstructured document corresponding to the path to the leaf node is accommodated in a single group of words.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the grouping is performed based on a combination of an extraction rule matched to the candidate element and a classification by an adjacent element adjoined to the candidate element.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the pruning comprises:

identifying an unbranched tree from among the one or ore trees as a valid unbranched tree; and

removing an inconsistent node overlapping a node already found in the valid unbranched tree from a remaining branched tree among the one or more trees.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the pruning further comprises:

pruning out an inconsistent branch extending over a valid node already found in the valid unbranched tree based on positions of a branch and the valid node.

5. The method of claim 3 , wherein the unbranched tree includes an unbranched tree accommodated in the single group of the words and/or an unbranched tree spreading over multiple groups of words.

6. The method of claim 3 , wherein the pruning further comprises:

identifying a chain to be regarded as a valid tree based on a heuristics rule if there exist a remaining tree not identified as the valid tree; and

repeating the identifying of the unbranched tree and the removing of the inconsistent node iteratively.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the pruning comprises:

assigning a higher priority to a tree having the candidate element accompanying a prefix and/or a preceding linefeed code than other trees without the prefix or the preceding linefeed code among the one or more trees.

8. The method of claim 3 , further comprising determining a hierarchy between the valid unbranched trees based on positions of the valid unbranched trees.

9. The method of claim 1 , further comprising removing an invalidly extracted element not describing the document structure from the one or more candidate elements.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the document is a text document, the single group of the words is a single sentence and the candidate element includes an ordered or unordered object.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein each tree accommodates one or more combinations of elements successively picked up from the group in a reading direction, each combination representing each potential partial structure in the document structure.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the extracting, the grouping, the building and the pruning is performed in a cloud computing environment.

13. A method for estimating document structure of a document, comprising:

extracting one or more candidate elements describing a logical document structure from an unstructured document based on an extraction rule characterizing an element to be extracted;

grouping the one or more candidate elements into a group based on a combination of the extraction rule matched to the candidate element and a classification by an adjacent element adjoined to the candidate element;

building one or more trees, representing the logical document structure of the unstructured document, for the group, each tree having a root node and a leaf node selected from the candidate elements in the group; and

pruning the one or more trees based on a path from the root node to the leaf node for each tree to identify an unbranched tree representing a partial structure of the document.

14. A computer system for estimating document structure of an unstructured document by executing program instructions, the computer system comprising:

a memory configured to tangibly store the program instructions;

a processor in communication with the memory, wherein the computer system is configured to:

extract one or more candidate elements describing a logical document structure from an unstructured document;

group the one or more candidate elements into a group;

build one or more trees, representing the logical document structure of the unstructured document, for the group, each tree having a root node and a leaf node selected from the candidate elements in the group;

prune the one or more trees while leaving a path from the root node to the leaf node to identify an unbranched tree representing a partial structure of the document, the one or more trees being pruned based on whether a text in the unstructured document corresponding to the path to the leaf node is accommodated in a single group of words.

15. The computer system of claim 14 , wherein the grouping is performed based on a combination of an extraction rule matched to the candidate element and a classification by an adjacent element adjoined to the candidate element.

16. The computer system of claim 14 , wherein the computer system is further configured to:

identify an unbranched tree from among the one or more trees as a valid unbranched tree; and

remove an inconsistent node overlapping a node already found in the valid unbranched tree from a remaining branched tree among the one or more trees.

17. The computer system of claim 16 , wherein the computer system is further configured to:

prune out an inconsistent branch extending over a valid node already found in the valid unbranched tree based on positions of a branch and the valid node.

18. The computer system of claim 16 , wherein the unbranched tree includes an unbranched tree accommodated in the single group of the words and/or an unbranched tree spreading over multiple groups of words.

19. A computer program product for estimating document structure of an unstructured document, the computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer readable storage medium having program instructions embodied therewith, the program instructions executable by a computer to cause the computer to perform a method comprising:

extracting one or more candidate elements describing a logical document structure from an unstructured document;

grouping the one or more candidate elements into a group;

building one or more trees, representing the logical document structure of the unstructured document, for the group, each tree having a root node and a leaf node selected from the candidate elements in the group; and

pruning the one or more trees while leaving a path from the root node to the leaf node to identify an unbranched tree representing a partial structure of the document, the pruning being based on whether a text in the unstructured document corresponding to the path to the leaf node is accommodated in a single group of words.

20. The computer program product of claim 19 , wherein the grouping is performed based on a combination of an extraction rule matched to the candidate element and a classification by an adjacent element adjoined to the candidate element.

21. The computer program product of claim 19 , wherein the pruning comprises:

identifying an unbranched tree from among the one or more trees as a valid unbranched tree; and

removing an inconsistent node overlapping a node already found in the valid unbranched tree from a remaining branched tree among the one or more trees.

22. The computer program product of claim 21 , wherein the pruning further comprises:

pruning out an inconsistent branch extending over a valid node already found in the valid unbranched tree based on positions of a branch and the valid node.

23. The computer program product of claim 21 , wherein the unbranched tree includes an unbranched tree accommodated in the single group of the words and/or an unbranched tree spreading over multiple groups of words.