Signature Files and Signature File Construction

Abstract

An important question in information retrieval is how to create a database index which can be searched efficiently for the data one seeks. Today, one or more of the following four techniques have been frequently used: full text searching, B-trees, inversion, and the signature file. Full text searching imposes no space overhead but requires long response time. In contrast, B-trees, inversion, and the signature file work quickl, but need a large intermediary representation structure (index), which provides direct links to relevant data. In this paper, we concentrate on the techniques of signature files and discuss different construction approaches of a signature file.