FIELD: physics, computer engineering.
SUBSTANCE: invention relates to function-oriented search in databases containing materials classified by headers of one of classification systems, e.g., international patent classification, and can be used for different information tasks, particularly for searching for engineering solutions in different areas of science and engineering. In response to a user-defined task in form of a word description of a function, which includes at least a word which characterises an action and/or a word which describes a parameter, change of which characterises the result of said action, for searching for information on the possible execution of which information search is performed, the system provides word descriptions of functional analogues, and in response to their selection by the user, presents the header of a classification system on which information search can be performed thereafter. Headers are defined by a modified classification system, obtained in advance by adding to the headers of the classification system a field containing at least one word which characterises an action and/or a word which describes a parameter, change of which characterises the result of that action, corresponding to the sense of the content of the header of the classification system, wherein the header is defined based on match of at least one of said words contained in the additional field of the modified classification system with at least one word from the word description of selected functional analogues.
EFFECT: efficient, particularly fast and appropriate execution of a task for searching for information on solutions, which can be used (wholly, partially, adaptively) to solve a user-defined task.
24 cl, 7 dwg
