Patent · US Expired

Query optimization through the use of multi-column statistics to avoid the problems of column correlation

US5995957A · kind A · utility

46Cited by
4References
23Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateFeb 28, 1997
Grant dateNov 30, 1999
Priority date
Expiry dateFeb 28, 2017

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC Y)Emerging Cross-Sectional Technologies
  • CPC primaryY10S707/99932
  • WIPO fieldComputer technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

The system, method, and program of this invention collects multi-column statistics, by a database management system, to reflect a relationship among multiple columns of a table in a relational database. These statistics are stored in the system catalog, and are used during query optimization to obtain an estimate of the number of qualifying rows when a query has predicates on multiple columns of a table. A multi-column linear quantile statistic is collected by dividing the data of multiple columns into sub-ranges where each sub-range has approximately an even distribution of data, and determining a frequency and cardinality of each sub-range. A multi-column polygonal quantile statistic is collected by dividing the data of multiple columns into sub-spaces where each sub-space contains approximately the same number of tuples, and determining a frequency and cardinality of each sub-space. The system catalog is accessed for the stored multi-column linear quantile statistic for a query having a single range predicate and at least one equal predicate to determine the selectivity value for the predicates of the query. The system catalog is accessed for the stored multi-column polygonal qu…

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.