In its most general form, the range searching problem consists of preprocessing a set S of objects, in order to determine which objects from S intersect with a query object, called a range. For example, S may be a set of points corresponding to the coordinates of several cities, and we want to find the cities within a certain latitude and longitude range.
The range searching problems and data structures are a fundamental topic of computational geometry. The range searching problem finds applications not only in areas that deal with processing geometrical data (like geographical information systems (GIS), and CAD), but also in databases.
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Famous quotes containing the words range and/or searching:
“The variables of quantification, ‘something,’ ‘nothing,’ ‘everything,’ range over our whole ontology, whatever it may be; and we are convicted of a particular ontological presupposition if, and only if, the alleged presuppositum has to be reckoned among the entities over which our variables range in order to render one of our affirmations true.”
—Willard Van Orman Quine (b. 1908)
“Abode where lost bodies roam each searching for its lost one.”
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