Patent ID: 7647296

Claim:
A computer implemented method for estimating an earliest first access time of a plurality of currently active transactions accessing at least one database object, wherein the computer performs the following functions comprising: providing a storage area of a particular size to store data for a plurality of groups corresponding to the at least one database object; placing each of the plurality of currently active transactions accessing the object in a group of the plurality of groups, the plurality of groups corresponding to a plurality of time intervals, and a particular range of logic sequence numbers, each of the plurality of currently active transactions accessing the at least one database object being placed in the group based upon a first access time of the at least one database object by each of the plurality of currently active transactions and the particular time interval wherein the first access time is represented by a log sequence number; storing a group first access time for the group by adding information about the first group in a control block in the storage area, the group first access time corresponding to the earliest first access time for any of the plurality of currently active transactions in the group; and defining the earliest first access time for any of the plurality of currently active transactions in the group as a commit log sequence number.