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Technique for ranking records of a database

  • US 6,317,741 B1
  • Filed: 08/07/2000
  • Issued: 11/13/2001
  • Est. Priority Date: 08/09/1996
  • Status: Expired due to Term
First Claim
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1. A method for ranking records of a database located during a search of an index to the database performed in response to a query received from a user, the index having a plurality of index entries, each index entry having a weight, the query having a plurality of query terms, each query term corresponding to an index entry, the method comprising the steps of:

  • scoring each located record according to the number of times portions of information corresponding to each query term occur in each record and the weight of each index entry corresponding to each occurring query term;

    storing the score and an identifier of each located record in a respective entry of a ranking list, the ranking list having a limit on the number of entries stored therein; and

    in response to the ranking list reaching the limit, determining if any records yet to be located may achieve a score that is higher than the score of any of the records already located and stored in the ranking list based upon query terms corresponding to index entries having a low weight, and, if not, searching the index using query terms corresponding to index entries having weights higher than the low weight.

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