Patent ID: 6865567

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for estimating the computational efficiency of a search within a database comprising the steps of: a. generating a histogram of data, comprising the steps of: i. providing a data set representing a plurality of elements from the database and a value associated with each element, the data set having a property defining an order of the elements therein; ii. determining at least one range, each of the at least one range having at least an element, an arithmetic mean of each range equal to the arithmetic mean of the values associated with the at least an element within said range, a specific range from the at least one range comprising a plurality of elements from the data set adjacent each other within the defined order, wherein the arithmetic mean of the specific range is within a predetermined maximum distance from a value associated with an element within the specific range, the predetermined maximum distance being independent of the number of elements within the specific range and their associated values; iii. determining at least a value related to an estimate of a value associated with an element within the range; and iv. for each range storing said value related to an estimate of a value associated with an element within the range and data relating to the size and location of the range, to provide a histogram of said value associated with an element within the range and data relating to the size and location of the range; and b. using the histogram of data for estimating the computational efficiency of a search within a database.