Patent ID: 8560511

Claim:
A machine-implemented method for providing fine-grain locking to prevent access to a portion of a data structure, the method comprising: determining, by a processor, whether a portion of a data structure stored in memory is available for updating with event tracking data based on a time stamp of the event tracking data, wherein the event tracking data tracks an activity associated with a source of the event tracking data wherein the event tracking data includes web site traffic data included in a Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) request associated with a web site; discarding, by the processor, the event tracking data if the portion of the data structure is locked; locking, by the processor, the portion of the data structure stored in the memory to prevent access by other processes to the portion if the portion of the data structure is available; and updating, by the processor, the portion of the data structure stored in the memory with the event tracking data, wherein updating the portion of the data structure comprises incrementing a number of hits stored in the portion of the data structure.