Patent ID: 8364684

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for indexing one or more terms, comprising: in response to one or more terms to be indexed, indexing each of the one or more terms in a regular index, the regular index having a plurality of postings lists and each postings list corresponding to a string containing one of the one or more terms; and for each of the one or more terms having a plurality of characters, indexing at least one prefix portion of each term in a prefix index that is separated from the regular index, wherein the regular index is used for regular searches, and wherein the prefix index is used for prefix searches without having to combine the plurality of postings lists of the regular index at the point in time; receiving a search query having a search term for searching files that contain the search term from a client; determining whether a search to be performed is a regular search or a prefix search; if the search is a regular search, searching in the regular index to identify a plurality of postings lists, each containing the search term, and returning to the client, a list of item identifiers from the plurality of postings lists obtained from the regular index; and if the search is a prefix search, searching in the prefix index to identify a single postings list that exactly matches the search term, and returning to the client, a list of item identifiers from the single postings list; wherein the regular index and the prefix index are stored in the same file, and wherein each prefix entry of the prefix index is tagged with a marker indicating that the corresponding prefix entry is part of prefix index.