Inverted index
TYPE OF DATABASE INDEX
Full inverted index; Inverted file; Inverted files; Inverted file index; Inverted list; Inverse index; Postings file
In computer science, an inverted index (also referred to as a postings list, postings file, or inverted file) is a database index storing a mapping from content, such as words or numbers, to its locations in a table, or in a document or a set of documents (named in contrast to a forward index, which maps from documents to content). The purpose of an inverted index is to allow fast full-text searches, at a cost of increased processing when a document is added to the database.