US Patent 7565217 Traversal of empty regions in a searchable data structure

Provided are a method, system, and article of manufacture for the traversal of empty regions in a searchable data structure such as a table. A plurality of elements are allocated in logical storage, wherein the plurality of elements correspond to entries of the searchable data structure. An indicator is maintained corresponding to contiguously allocated empty elements in the plurality of elements. An operation is performed on the searchable data structure by avoiding the contiguously allocated empty elements.