US Patent 7499917 Processing cross-table non-Boolean term conditions in database queries

Processing non-Boolean term conditions in database queries. A query that is a request for data in a database is received and includes at least one uneven non-Boolean term condition that spans multiple tables in the database. The non-Boolean term condition is split into separate portions, each of the portions providing a Boolean term that can be satisfied by accessing one table in the database. The separate portions are executed independently to find at least one data result in the database that satisfies the Boolean term of each separate portion, and the data result from each separate portion are combined into a final result that satisfies the query.