System and method for processing a text search query in a collection of documents

A processor-implemented infrastructure for processing a text search query in a collection of documents, wherein the text search query comprises search conditions on search terms, and wherein the search conditions are translated into conditions on index terms, the infrastructure comprising:

• the collection of documents being grouped in blocks of N documents;
• a block posting index comprising a set of the index terms and a posting list for each index term of the set of the index terms, wherein all the blocks in which each index term occurs are enumerated;
• intrablock postings being generated for each block and for each index term, wherein the intrablock postings comprise a bit vector of length N representing a sequence of the documents forming the block, wherein each bit indicates an occurrence of the index term in a corresponding document;
• and
• wherein the conditions on the index terms of the query are processed by:
• using the block posting index to obtain hit candidate blocks comprising documents being candidates for fulfilling the conditions,
• evaluating the conditions on the bit vectors of the hit candidate blocks to verify the corresponding documents;
• and
• identifying hit documents fulfilling the conditions.

A computer program product having program codes stored on a computer-usable medium for processing a text search query in a collection of documents, wherein the text search query comprises search conditions on search terms, and wherein the search conditions are translated into conditions on index terms, the computer program product comprising:

• a program code for grouping the collection of documents in blocks of N documents;
• a program code for generating a block posting index, wherein the block posting index comprises a set of the index terms and a posting list for each index term of the set of the index terms;
• a program code for enumerating all blocks in which each index term occurs;
• a program code for generating intrablock postings for each block and each index term, wherein the intrablock postings comprise a bit vector of length N representing a sequence of the documents forming the block, wherein each bit indicates an occurrence of the index term in a corresponding document;
• and
• a program code for processing the conditions on the index terms of the query by:
• using the block posting index to obtain hit candidate blocks comprising documents being candidates for fulfilling the conditions,
• evaluating the conditions on the bit vectors of the hit candidate blocks to verify the corresponding documents;
• and
• identifying hit documents fulfilling the conditions.