Patent ID: 8275800

Claim:
A method, comprising: considering a spatial feature for storage in a database system running on a computer, the spatial feature comprising: a polygon, P, comprising: an outer ring, OR, and the area within the outer ring; the outer ring comprising: a plurality of vertices, designated ORV 1 , . . . ORVM, with the vertex designated ORV 1 being the first vertex, the vertex designated ORVM being the last vertex, vertices having consecutive numbers after “ORV” in their respective designations being consecutive vertices, and the first and last vertex being the same so that ORV 1 =ORVM; lines connecting consecutive vertices; and an interior ring contained within the polygon; a) the computer removing the interior ring from the polygon; b) the computer determining a line along which to split the polygon without regard for the location of the inner ring within the polygon; c) the computer splitting the polygon into two polygons, SP 1 and SP 2 , along the line; d) the computer applying the interior ring to the two split polygons by invoking a point set difference between the interior ring and the two split polygons; and e) the computer storing the split polygons in the database system on the computer.