Patent ID: 7739293

Claim:
A data processing system implemented method of collecting statistics associated with data stored in a database, the database operatively coupled to a data processing system, the data processing system implemented method comprising: assembling a list of tables of said data, said tables being scheduled for periodic automatic statistics collection; for each of the tables, determining a likelihood that currently computed statistics associated with the data in each of the tables have changed; removing from the list tables for which said determined likelihood is low; collecting updated statistics for the data in tables which remain in said list after said removing; and updating the scheduled periodic automatic statistics collection for each of the tables, said periodic automatic statistics collection comprising periodically performing subsequent collections of statistics associated with the data in each of the tables, wherein said updating comprises scheduling, for each of the tables, said subsequent collections of statistics more often or less often based on another likelihood that the updated statistics have changed for each of the tables, wherein said another likelihood that the updated statistics have changed is determined by comparing said updated statistics with said computed statistics.