Methods, devices and computer program products for performing predicate evaluation on a compressed variable length character string are disclosed. Aspects include determining upper and lower boundaries of a false positive range for a predicate, the false positive range for the predicate being a range in which a result of the predicate evaluation may lead to a false positive error. Aspects also include compression-encoding the upper and lower boundaries of the false positive range and performing a first comparison for comparing the compressed variable length character string with the compression-encoded upper and lower boundaries of the false positive range. Aspects further include determining a result of the predicate evaluation based on at least a result of the first comparison processing.