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 quickly, 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. The signature technique cannot only be used in document databases, but also in relational and object-oriented databases. In a document database, a set of semistructured (XML) documents is stored and the queries related to keywords are frequently evaluated. To speed up the evaluation of such queries, we can construct signatures for words and superimpose them to establish signatures for document blocks, which can be used to cut off non-relevant documents as early as possible when evaluating a query. Especially, such a method can be extended to handle the socalled containment queries, for which not only the key words, but also the hierarchical structure of a document has to be considered. We can also handle queries issued to a relational or an objectoriented database using the signature technique by establishing signatures for attribute values, tuples, as well as tables and classes.
TopBackground
The signature file method was originally introduced as a text indexing methodology (Faloutsos, 1985; Faloutsos, Lee, Plaisant & Shneiderman, 1990). Nowadays, however, it is utilized in a wide range of applications, such as in office filing (Christodoulakis, Theodoridou, Ho, Papa & Pathria, 1986), hypertext systems (Faloutsos, Lee, Plaisant & Shneiderman, 1990), relational and object-oriented databases (Chang & Schek, 1989; Ishikawa, Kitagawa & Ohbo, 1993; Lee & Lee, 1992; Sacks-Davis, Kent, Ramamohanarao, Thom & Zobel, 1995; Yong, Lee & Kim, 1994, Tousidou et al., 2002; Chen, 2004), as well as in data mining (Andre-Joesson & Badal, 1997). It requires much smaller storage space than inverted files, and can handle insertion and update operations in databases easily.
A typical query processing with the signature file is as follows: When a query is given, a query signature is formed from the query value. Then each signature in the signature file is examined over the query signature. If a signature in the file matches the query signature, the corresponding data object becomes a candidate that may satisfy the query. Such an object is called a drop. The next step of the query processing is the false drop resolution. Each drop is accessed and examined whether it actually satisfies the query condition. Drops that fail the test are called false drops while the qualified data objects are called actual drops.
A variety of approaches for constructing signature files have been proposed, such as bit-slice files (Ishikawa, Kitagawa & Ohbo, 1993), S-trees (Deppisch, 1986), and signature trees (Chen, 2002; Chen, 2005), as well as their different variants. In the following, we overview all of them and analyze their computational complexities.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Signatures: A bit string generated for a key word by using a hash function.
Signature Tree: A signature tree is an index structure, in which each path represents a signature identifier for the signature pointed to by the corresponding leaf node.
S-Tree: An S-tree is a height balanced multi-way tree. Each internal node corresponds to a page, which contains a set of signatures and each leaf node contains a set of entries of the form , where the object is accessed by the oid and s is its signature.
Multilevel Signature File: A method discussed follows the same principle as the S-tree, but different in that a signature at a higher level is a superimposed code generated directly from a group of text blocks, instead of superimposing signatures at a lower level.
Sequential Signature File: A signature file is a set of signatures stored in a file in a sequential way.
Bit-Slice Signature File: A bit slice file is a file, in which one bit per signature for all the signatures is stored. For a set of signatures of length F, F bit slice files will be generated.
Signature Identifier: A signature identifier for a signature in a signature file is a positioned bit string which can be used to identify it from others.