INFORMATION RETRIEVAL BASED ON RANK-ORDERED CUMULATIVE QUERY SCORES CALCULATED FROM WEIGHTS OF ALL KEYWORDS IN AN INVERTED INDEX FILE FOR MINIMIZING ACCESS TO A MAIN DATABASE

A method and system are described for increasing quantitative database retrieval processing speed by minimizing access to the sequential file to the smallest possible value by use of score calculations using only the transposed file to rank the retrieval objects and terminating the process at a specified number of retrieval objects. Access to the transposed file is minimized by avoiding accessing unnecessary parts as much as possible, through the calculation of an anticipated score value which is used to make decisions about the optimum time for stopping the retrieval process. Further efficiencies are described through the use of relaxed order-ranking conditions which allow the process to be logically terminated even before the specified number of retrieval objects have been absolutely determined.