Apparatus and method for searching information
First Claim
1. A method comprising:
- accessing, by a computing device, an ordered list comprising a plurality of tokens, said tokens corresponding to elements of one or more objects, said list storing, for each token in said list, a corresponding document identifier, wherein said list is ordered according to a value of said token and said tokens are encoded using differential encoding whereby a value for a second and each subsequently encoded character is dependent on a value of a preceding character,receiving, by the computing device, a search term comprising a plurality of parts, andidentifying, by the computing device, a subset of said list for a first part of said search term and a further subset for at least one subsequent part of said search term, wherein each subset corresponds to possible results for said search term.
9 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A method and apparatus for use in servicing a search request where the search request comprises a plurality of parts (such as characters) and establishing a list of tokens where the tokens correspond to elements of objects and have a numerical value. For each part of the search request a subset of the list is determined, said subset identifying a set of objects which may satisfy the search query. The subsets may be identified iteratively. Token encoding is used to encode tokens based on a content of said elements and, in this case, the same token encoding is used to encode the parts of the search request. The token encoding may comprise differential encoding. In certain embodiments, resource requirements necessary to complete the search request are determined based on the identified subsets.
-
Citations
18 Claims
-
1. A method comprising:
-
accessing, by a computing device, an ordered list comprising a plurality of tokens, said tokens corresponding to elements of one or more objects, said list storing, for each token in said list, a corresponding document identifier, wherein said list is ordered according to a value of said token and said tokens are encoded using differential encoding whereby a value for a second and each subsequently encoded character is dependent on a value of a preceding character, receiving, by the computing device, a search term comprising a plurality of parts, and identifying, by the computing device, a subset of said list for a first part of said search term and a further subset for at least one subsequent part of said search term, wherein each subset corresponds to possible results for said search term. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
-
-
7. Apparatus comprising:
- at least one processor, and at least one memory including computer code, the at least one memory and the computer code configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to perform;
accessing an ordered list comprising a plurality of tokens, said tokens corresponding to elements of one or more objects, said list storing, for each token in said list, a corresponding document identifier, wherein said list is ordered according to a value of said token and said tokens are encoded using differential encoding whereby a value for a second and each subsequently encoded character is dependent on a value of a preceding character, receiving a search term comprising a plurality of parts, and identifying a subset of said list for a first part of said search term and a further subset for at least one subsequent part of said search term, wherein each subset corresponds to possible results for said search term. - View Dependent Claims (8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
- at least one processor, and at least one memory including computer code, the at least one memory and the computer code configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to perform;
-
16. A computer readable medium storing instructions, said instructions being such that when processed by a processor configure said processor to:
-
access an ordered list comprising a plurality of tokens, said tokens corresponding to elements of one or more objects, said list storing, for each token in said list, a corresponding document identifier, wherein said list is ordered according to a value of said token and said tokens are encoded using differential encoding whereby a value for a second and each subsequently encoded character is dependent on a value of a preceding character, receive a search term comprising a plurality of parts, and identify a subset of said list for a first part of said search term and a further subset for at least one subsequent part of said search term, wherein each subset corresponds to possible results for said search term.
-
-
17. A method comprising:
-
representing each of a plurality of elements of one or more objects as a corresponding token with a numerical value, accessing, by a computing device, a list of tokens having a numerical value, each token representing at least one of a plurality of elements of one or more objects, said list storing, for each token in said list, an object identifier identifying an object wherein an element corresponding to said token may be found, said list being ordered according to said numerical values of said tokens and said tokens being encoded using differential encoding whereby a value for a second and each subsequently encoded character is dependent on a value of a preceding character, receiving, by a computing device, a search request comprising a search term having a plurality of parts, receiving, for each part in said search term, an indication of a subset of said list which satisfies said search request, and predicting, by a computing device, a resource requirement necessary to complete said search request based on a number of parts of said search term.
-
-
18. Apparatus comprising:
- at least one processor, and at least one memory including computer code, the at least one memory and the computer code configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to perform;
representing each of a plurality of elements of one or more objects as a corresponding token with a numerical value, accessing a list of tokens having a numerical value, each token representing at least one of a plurality of elements of one or more objects, said list storing, for each token in said list, an object identifier identifying an object wherein an element corresponding to said token may be found, said list being ordered according to said numerical values of said tokens and said tokens being encoded using differential encoding whereby a value for a second and each subsequently encoded character is dependent on a value of a preceding character, receiving a search request comprising a search term having a plurality of parts, receiving, for each part in said search term, an indication of a subset of said list which satisfies said search request, and predicting a resource requirement necessary to complete said search request based on a number of parts of said search term.
- at least one processor, and at least one memory including computer code, the at least one memory and the computer code configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to perform;
Specification