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Databases Intermediate

What is Full-Text Search?

A technique for searching natural language text in databases using word stemming, ranking, and relevance scoring.

Full-text search goes beyond simple LIKE queries. It tokenizes text into words, applies stemming (running → run), removes stop words (the, is, at), and ranks results by relevance. PostgreSQL provides built-in tsvector/tsquery types.

Features include phrase search, proximity search, weighted columns, and fuzzy matching. PostgreSQL's GIN indexes accelerate full-text queries. For more advanced needs, dedicated search engines like Elasticsearch or Meilisearch offer additional features.

Related Terms

Graph Database
A database that uses graph structures with nodes, edges, and properties to store and query highly connected data.
Redis
An open-source, in-memory data store used as a database, cache, message broker, and queue with sub-millisecond response times.
Database Constraint
Rules enforced by the database to maintain data integrity, including NOT NULL, UNIQUE, CHECK, PRIMARY KEY, and FOREIGN KEY.
Crosstab Query
A query that transforms rows into columns, creating a pivot table view of aggregated data.
Database Proxy
A middleware server that sits between applications and databases, providing connection pooling, load balancing, and query routing.
Query Optimization
The process of improving database query performance through indexing, query rewriting, and schema design techniques.
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