Patent ID: 7809771

Claim:
A method to reduce an amount of memory associated with information in a database table, stored in a memory of a device, having a plurality of rows and one or more columns, wherein the information relates to at least two columns, the method comprising: determining respective values in the at least two columns in the database; determining whether the respective values are interdependent; upon determining an interdependency, generating a combined column based on the at least two columns, wherein generating the combined column comprises: storing a dictionary, in the memory of the device, for each of the at least two columns; replacing each of the values in each of the at least two columns with a reference to the respective dictionary associated with that column; storing a combined dictionary, in the memory of the device, corresponding to the at least two columns in which values have been replaced; storing a combined column, in the memory of the device, that includes values that reference the combined dictionary such that, using i) the dictionary for each of the at least two columns, ii) the at least two columns in which values have been replaced, and iii) the combined dictionary, the respective values in the at least two columns can be determined; and upon generating the combined column, deleting the at least two columns from memory.