Patent ID: 7945540

Claim:
A method comprising the steps of: receiving one or more continuous data streams that comprise a plurality of tuples of data, wherein each tuple, within the plurality of tuples of data, is associated with a particular time, wherein the particular time is no earlier than the time of any previously generated tuple in the plurality of tuples received; retaining in partitions of a data structure the plurality of tuples that fall within a sliding time-based window, wherein the sliding time-based window is bounded by (a) a specified relative range of time and (b) a maximum number of tuples to retain; wherein retaining in partitions of a data structure the plurality of tuples that fall within a sliding time-based window comprises: in response to receiving a tuple from the one or more continuous data streams, performing: (a) removing, from each particular partition of said partitions of said data structure, tuples that exceed a specified amount of tuples to be stored in each particular partition, wherein the partitions in the data structure are based upon one or more partition keys; (b) removing, from each particular partition of said partitions of said data structure, tuples that are associated with a particular time that is not within the specified relative range of time; and (c) storing, in a particular partition among the partitions of the data structure, the tuple; and wherein the method is performed by one or more computing devices.