Patent ID: 7188334

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for use in joining two value-ordered primary index tables T 1 and T 2 in a database system in response to a join command, T 1 and T 2 each having rows and T 1 and T 2 each having a first row, comprising the steps of: a. loading a subset of the rows of T 1 into memory, where the subset is consecutive and includes the first row of T 1 ; b. loading the first row of T 2 into memory; c. comparing the loaded row of T 2 to the loaded rows of T 1 ; d. outputting a match, if any; e. incrementing a not-match counter if no match is found; f. loading a next consecutive row of T 2 into memory; g. repeating steps c through f; h. loading new rows of T 1 into memory, where the new rows are consecutive and are consecutive with the previously loaded rows of T 1 ; and i. repeating steps c through h.