Method and apparatus for identifying new data by address ranges

Abstract

A method and apparatus for identifying new data stored in data warehouses by storing the new data records at contiguous storage locations, and storing range data that specifies the range of the contiguous storage locations. New data is identified in the database by storing the start location and the end location of the contiguous range of data location, enabling server processes to access the new data records based on the stored range data, without needing to identify the new data records on a row-by-row basis. The arrangement for identifying new data is effective for updating existing summary information of existing data in view of the new data, for example, by generating a delta summary. The delta summary, representing summary information corresponding to the new data, can then be merged with the existing summary data to complete updating the summary data in view of the new data.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.