Patent ID: 8380708

Claim:
A computer-implemented method, comprising: in response to a query issued by a requesting entity against a data abstraction model abstractly describing data in a database, wherein the query specifies to order query results responsive to the query, based on a relative proximity between: (i) data retrieved for a logical field of the data abstraction model, and (ii) a predefined value, wherein the query specifies the predefined value: a) receiving a list of data records ordered according to an initial order, the list of data records defining a result set for the query; b) before outputting the result set, determining a value variance for each data record in the list, the value variance of a given data record indicating a relative proximity between the predefined value and a corresponding value of the given data record; c) sorting the received list of data records on the basis of the determined value variances; and d) outputting the sorted list of data records.