Patent ID: 8255411
Filing Date: 2012-08-28
Classification: G06F

Abstract:
1. A method for caching results of multi-prefix user queries in an information retrieval system, the method comprising the following steps: (a) receiving a multi-prefix user query containing a plurality of prefix terms; (b) retrieving from an index, for each prefix term, a list of records containing at least one word having a prefix matching that prefix term; (c) generating a result list for the user query by intersecting the lists of records retrieved from the index; (d) computing the value of a query function to determine whether to cache the result list, wherein the value of the query function is dependent upon a plurality of factors, including the total number of characters in the user query and the processing time required to retrieve and intersect the lists of records from the index to generate the result list; and (e) conditionally caching the result list in storage, based upon a comparison of the value of the query function to a predefined threshold, (f) whereby the processing time for a subsequent user query is decreased by retrieving the cached result list from storage.