Approximating multi-dimensional aggregate range queries over real attributes

Finding approximate answers to multi-dimensional range queries over real valued attributes has significant applications in data exploration and database query optimization. In this paper we consider the following problem: given a table of d attributes whose domain is the real numbers, and a query that specifies a range in each dimension, find a good approximation of the number of records in the table that satisfy the query. We present a new histogram technique that is designed to approximate the density of multi-dimensional datasets with real attributes. Our technique finds buckets of variable size, and allows the buckets to overlap. Overlapping buckets allow more efficient approximation of the density. The size of the cells is based on the local density of the data. This technique leads to a faster and more compact approximation of the data distribution. We also show how to generalize kernel density estimators, and how to apply them on the multi-dimensional query approximation problem. Finally, we compare the accuracy of the proposed techniques with existing techniques using real and synthetic datasets.