A mass spectrum dictionary for fast library searching

When data can be arranged according to some ordering principle (e.g. numerical or alphabetical) powerful searching techniques can be applied to retrieve information. An explicit set of procedures is proposed for constructing a precisely ordered mass spectrum dictionary. Performance tests on the proposed system show that on average less than 1% of the spectra need to be examined in searching for a given unknown. The mass spectrum dictionary is economical on storage and it will accommodate spectrum variability likely to be found in a library search environment.