The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Apr. 29, 2003
Filed:
May. 16, 2000
Robert M. Lane, Dixon, CA (US);
Sun Microsystems, Inc., Santa Clara, CA (US);
Abstract
One embodiment of the present invention provides a system that facilitates performing an efficient wildcard search on a field within a relational database table. The system operates by receiving a query with a search string that includes a wildcard and a sub-string. In order to process this query, the system identifies rows in a table in which a target column contains a string that matches search string. This is accomplished by looking up rows in the table that match the search string by looking up the sub-string in a sub-string index for the target column, wherein this sub-string index allows a given string in the target column to be rapidly identified based upon a sub-string of the given string. Next, the system accesses the matching rows in order to process the query. In one embodiment of the present invention, the wildcard is a leading wildcard that precedes the sub-string. In a variation on this embodiment, the search string additionally includes a trailing wildcard that follows the sub-string.