Patent ID: 6847958

Claim:
A method of deleting a value from a series of index data stored in an index node of a database system, said index node having 1st, 2nd, 3rd, . . . , Nth storage blocks in a circular-queue type structure, in which said 1st storage block is located next to said Nth storage block, the method comprising the steps of: (a) receiving a first value required to be deleted from an ith storage block of said index node, i being any one of 1, 2, 3, . . . , N; (b) deleting said first value stored in said ith storage block; (c) shifting each of a first set of values stored in 1st, 2nd, 3rd, . . . , i−1th storage blocks to each of 2nd, 3rd, 4th, . . . , ith storage blocks if i<(N+1)/2; and (d) shifting each of a second set of values stored in i+1th, i+2th, i+3th, . . . , Nth storage blocks to each of ith, i+1th, i+2th, . . . N−1th storage blocks if i>(N+1)/2.