inverted index

database, information science A sequence of (key, pointer)

pairs where each pointer points to a record in a database

which contains the key value in some particular field. The

index is sorted on the key values to allow rapid searching for

a particular key value, using e.g. binary search. The index

is "inverted" in the sense that the key value is used to find

the record rather than the other way round. For databases in

which the records may be searched based on more than one

field, multiple indices may be created that are sorted on

those keys.

An index may contain gaps to allow for new entries to be added

in the correct sort order without always requiring the

following entries to be shifted out of the way.

(1995-02-08)