Patent ID: 7487272

Claim:
A computer implementable method for deleting expired data items in an ordered data queue comprising: identifying an ordered data queue configured to sequentially store a plurality of data items on a first-in-first-out basis, wherein each data item comprises content and is associated with an item specific expiry time; maintaining at least one queue specific variable based upon values of the expiry times of the plurality of data items in the ordered data queue; situationally updating a value of the at least one queue specific variable each time a composition of the plurality of data items in the ordered data queue changes; executing an algorithm configured to detect and delete all of the data items in the ordered data queue that have expired, wherein said executing step further comprises: sequentially processing at least one of the data items in an order established by the ordered data queue, and determining whether to halt processing of remaining data items not yet processed by the algorithm depending upon a result of a mathematical operation having variables of the item specific expiry time for the data item being processed and the value of the queue specific variable; when the determination to halt the processing of the remaining data items is negative, identifying a next ordered one of the plurality of data items is determined when another sequential data item is present in the ordered data queue, wherein the sequentially processing and determining steps are repeated for the next ordered one; and when the determination to halt the processing of the remaining data items is positive, ending the execution of the algorithm without processing subsequently ordered ones of the plurality of data items; whereby the method reduces resource overhead of expired item processing by not requiring each data item of the ordered queue be checked each time an expiration determination and deletion cycle is performed.