A disclosed data structure of a phrase tree includes, as data of each node in the phrase tree, a data block including a first area for holding a code for a character or a character string, a second area for holding, for each character that will be used, an appearance sequential number of a second character that appears next to the character or the character string, and a third area for holding, according to the appearance sequential number, a number of appearances or a code corresponding to a character string comprising the character or the character string and the second character when the number of appearances exceeds a threshold.