Patent ID: 6879976

Claim:
A method of indexing occurrences of a value in at least one data record using a bit vector comprising: associating a first bit vector with a first value to be held in a first field; associating a second bit vector with a second value to be held in said first field; associating a third bit vector with a third value to be held in a second field; performing a first logical “AND” operation on said first bit vector with said third bit vector to yield a first result Boolean value wherein said first logical “AND” operation terminates upon achieving a first successful match on a bit by bit basis; performing a second logical “AND” operation on said second bit vector with said third bit vector to yield a second result Boolean value wherein said second logical “AND” operation terminates upon achieving a second successful match on a bit by bit basis; storing said first result Boolean value and said second result Boolean value as a value limit correlation wherein said value limit correlation comprises a first index having a first dimension sized to a first number of distinct values held in said first field and a second index having a second dimension sized to a second number of distinct values held in said second field irregardless of a total data record count; and determining if at least one record in a database exists wherein said at least one record comprises both said first value in said first field and said third value in said second field by accessing said value limit correlation and without accessing said database and without accessing said first, said second or said third bit vectors.