Apparatus and method for distributed query processing utilizing dynamically generated in-memory term maps

A system has a master node with instructions executed by a master node processor to receive a query over a network from a client machine and distribute query segments over the network. Worker nodes receive the query segments. Each worker node includes instructions executed by a worker node processor to construct from a columnar file a term map characterizing a term from the columnar file, row identifications from the columnar file and a Boolean indicator for each row identification that characterizes whether the term is present in the row specified by the row identification. The term map is cached in dynamic memory. Values responsive to the query segment are collected from the term map. The values are sent to the master node. The master node aggregates values from the worker nodes to form a result that is returned to the client machine over the network.