Patent ID: 8914352

Claim:
A system comprising: a processor; a data storage device; a database, stored on the data storage device, to hold tables of data including columns and rows; the database including a first table, a second table, and metadata, the metadata including a description of a non-equijoin of the first table and the second table including a non-equijoin operator and a correspondence corresponding to a column of the first table and a column of the second table, the non-equijoin operator being at least one of a greater-than operator, a greater-than-or-equal-to operator, a less-than operator, or a less-than-or-equal-to operator; a query generator executed by the processor to: receive a data request from a requestor, the data request including a request for the column of the first table in view of the column of the second table for which a non-equijoin is described in the metadata; and build a query statement using the column of the first table, the column of the second table, and the non-equijoin operator as retrieved from the metadata in the database.