Skip to content

Glossary: Embeddings and Vector Search

post-filter / pre-filter

Also written: pre-filter, post-filter, prefilter, postfilter, over-fetch

A pre-filter searches only items that pass a condition, so you get `k` results if enough qualify. A post-filter finds the best `k` first and then drops failures, which can leave few or none; over-fetching (asking for more, then cutting) softens this.

Where the book teaches it

Related terms

metadatamaskiterative index scans