A method, system, and computer program product are provided for processing
a text search query in a collection of documents. A full posting index is
generated. The full posting index comprises one or more first index terms
and a full posting list for each first index term, enumerating
occurrences of the first index term in the documents of the collection. A
text search query comprises search conditions on search terms. These
search conditions are translated into conditions on the search terms to
provide translated conditions. At least one short posting index is
generated. The short posting index comprises one or more second index
terms and a short posting list for each second index term, enumerating
the documents in which the second index term occurs. Filter conditions
and complementary conditions to represent the full content of the
translated conditions are generated, wherein the filter conditions
approximate the translated conditions. The filter conditions are
processed using the short posting index and the complementary conditions
are processed using the full posting index to provide a query result.