Patent ID: 6539373
Filing Date: 2003-03-25
Classification: G06F,Y10S

Abstract:
A method of contextual searching, comprising:a) searching a set of documents according to a first criterion to obtain a first set of results; b) defining a subset of the set of documents according to a parameter to obtain a second set of results; and c) defining a third set of results comprising an intersection of the first set of results and the second set of results, by, for each document in the first set of results, identifying whether the document exists in the second set of results; wherein identifying whether the document exists comprises: c.1.1) applying a primary hash function to an identifier for the document to obtain a primary hash key for the identifier; c.1.2) identifying a hash bucket having a primary hash key corresponding to the obtained primary hash key, the hash bucket comprising at least one hash entry, each hash entry comprising a secondary hash key and a pointer to a record location in the second set of results; c.1.3) applying a secondary hash function to the identifier to obtain a secondary hash key for the identifier; c.1.4) comparing the secondary hash key for the identifier with the secondary hash key for at least one hash entry in the identified hash bucket; c.1.5) responsive to c.1.4) indicating at least one match, retrieving a record in the second set of results having a location corresponding to the value in the matching hash entry; and c.1.6) comparing the identifier with the retrieved record.