OBJECT-ORIENTED INTERFACE FOR AN INDEX

A computer implemented method searches an index to locate records of a database using an object oriented interface. Each record has a unique address in the database. The index is organized as a plurality of index entries where each index entry including a word and an ordered list of locations where the word occurs in the database. The words represent a unique piece of information of the database. The index entries are ordered first according to the collating order of the words, and second according to the collating order of the locations of each associated word. A query is parsed into terms and operators. Each term is associated with a corresponding index entry, the operators relate the terms. A basic stream reader object is generated for each term of the query. The basic stream reader object sequentially reads the locations of the corresponding index entry to determine a target location. A compound stream reader object is generated for each operator. The compound stream reader object references the basic stream reader objects associated with the terms related by the operator. The compound stream reader object produces locations of words within a single record according to the operator. Each basic and compound stream reader object is an encapsulation of data references and method references with operate on the data references.