Patent ID: 7546282

Claim:
Method for searching within elements on the same level of a hierarchically structured database, wherein each of the elements has one or more hierarchically structured nodes for defining attributes of said element, and wherein one or more nodes of the searched element must fulfill a plurality of search conditions (c 0 ,c i , . . . ), the method comprising the following steps: a. selecting a plurality of nodes and assigning a unique identifier (EID) to each of the selected nodes; b. creating a reference index, that allows to derive for each unique identifier (EID) of a selected node the corresponding element of the database; c. for each of the plurality of search conditions (c 0 ,c i , . . . ): retrieving a set (L, E i ) of unique identifiers (EID) of nodes whose descendant nodes, fulfill the respective search condition; d. intersecting the sets (L, E i ) to obtain a final set (L) of unique identifiers (EID); and e. retrieving searched elements based on the final set (L) of unique identifiers (EID) and the reference index.