inverted file


inverted file

[in′vərd·əd ′fīl] (computer science) A file, or method of file organization, in which labels indicating the locations of all documents of a given type are placed in a single record. A file whose usual order has been inverted.

inverted file

In data management, a file that is indexed on many of the attributes of the data itself. For example, in an employee file, an index could be maintained for all secretaries, another for managers. It is faster to search the indexes than every record. Also known as "inverted lists," inverted file indexes use a lot of disk space; searching is fast, updating is slower.