Patent ID: 7319995

Claim:
A method for joining an inner table and an outer table in a database in response to a query statement having an inclusion operator, said method comprising: (a) providing an inner table; (b) providing an outer table having zero or more records for inclusion with said inner table; (c) transposing said outer table and said inner table to form a right table and a left table, respectively; (d) creating a hash table from said left table; (e) obtaining a hash value from said right table; (f) probing said hash table with said hash value from said right table to determine if said hash value matches a value in said hash table; (g) concluding that said hash value from said right table matches said value in said hash table; (h) in response (i) evaluating the actual values and, (ii) concluding that the join condition is satisfied, and, in response, including said row of said right table in a result.