Method For Monitoring And Controlling The Processing Of Database Searches

A database system comprising:

• an input interface for receiving a regular expression from a user;
• logic that runs a search and error handling thread of an application process on a processor, wherein the search and error handling thread is configured to:
• receive a regular expression in a search and error handling thread of an application process running on a processor, wherein the regular expression includes one or more tokens and one or more quantifiers;
• search a database to find one or more input character strings that match the regular expression, wherein a duration of the searching scales greater than linearly with a size of an input character string in order to guarantee a determination of whether an input character string matches the regular expression including the quantifiers;
• track, within the search and error handling thread, an amount of time of searching for matches to the regular expression, wherein the tracking of the amount of time occurs during the searching of the database to find the one or more input character strings that match the regular expression;
• compare the amount of time to a threshold value;
• and
• perform an internal exit in the search and error handling thread when the amount of time exceeds the threshold value prior to completion of the searching of the database.