Abstract: A reference table has columns associated with data attributes and rows containing related words assigned to those attributes in a collection of data, those words coming from different data tables having independent numbers of records. The stored data include word thesauruses associated with the attributes, and reference table row identifier lists respectively associated with thesaurus entries. Each word thesaurus associated with an attribute has a respective entry for each word assigned to this data attribute in the collection of data. The reference table, which may be a virtual table, defines a unified algebraic framework for the entries of all the thesauruses. Query criteria can be examined with reference to the relevant thesauruses to obtain a row-ID list or bitmap vector which represents all the reference table rows matching the query criteria, if any. The results can then be delivered through the original data tables or, preferably, by means of the thesauruses.

Abstract: A reference table, which may not be stored, has columns associated with data attributes and rows containing related words assigned to those attributes in a collection of data. The stored data include at least one macroword thesaurus associated with an attribute and with a prefix length shorter than a word length of said attribute, and reference table row identifier lists respectively associated with thesaurus entries. Each macroword thesaurus associated with an attribute and with a prefix length has a respective entry for each prefix value having this prefix length and matching a corresponding prefix of at least one word assigned to this data attribute in the collection of data.