Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in
Book cover

Encyclopedia of Database Systems pp 1842–1845Cite as

Index Creation and File Structures

  • Reference work entry
  • First Online:

  • 32 Accesses

Synonyms

Indexing; Inverted indexes

Definition

A core element of modern information retrieval systems is the document index. The index is a set of data structures that are constructed from a source document collection with the goal of allowing an information retrieval system to provide timely, efficient response to search queries. The process of index creation typically involves reading and processing the source document collection, parsing the text in each individual document and extracting the necessary features to allow for retrieving and ranking that document in response to a user query. Additionally, indexing systems often use dimension reduction, compression, and other related techniques to drastically reduce the storage footprint of the source collection in its indexed form. Document indexes are frequently stored in a set of file structures that are conducive to rapid retrieval and ranking by an information retrieval system in response to a query.

Historical Background

As...

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.

Chapter
USD   29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD   4,499.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD   6,499.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Learn about institutional subscriptions

Recommended Reading

  1. Grossman D, Frieder O. Information retrieval: algorithms and heuristics. 2nd ed. Dordrecht: Springer; 2004.

    Book  MATH  Google Scholar 

  2. The size of the World Wide Web: http://www.worldwidewebsize.com. Retrieved Mar 2008.

  3. Witten IH, Moffat A, Bell TC. Managing gigabytes: compressing and indexing documents and images. 2nd ed. San Francisco: Morgan Kaufmann; 1999.

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  4. Zobel J, Moffat A. Inverted files for text search engines. ACM Comput Surv. 2007;38(2):6.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Telcordia Technologies, Piscataway, NJ, USA

    Steven M. Beitzel

  2. Twitter, Inc., San Francisco, CA, USA

    Eric C. Jensen

  3. Georgetown University, Washington, DC, USA

    Ophir Frieder

Authors
  1. Steven M. Beitzel
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Eric C. Jensen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Ophir Frieder
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Steven M. Beitzel .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Georgia Institute of Technology College of Computing, Atlanta, GA, USA

    Ling Liu

  2. University of Waterloo School of Computer Science, Waterloo, ON, Canada

    M. Tamer Özsu

Section Editor information

  1. Library, Archival & Inf. Studies, The Univ. of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

    Edie Rasmussen

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2018 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature

About this entry

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this entry

Beitzel, S.M., Jensen, E.C., Frieder, O. (2018). Index Creation and File Structures. In: Liu, L., Özsu, M.T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Database Systems. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-8265-9_944

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation