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The History of Histograms (abridged)

Summary: A deliberately compressed, personally biased history of histograms, spanning scientific origins, approximation/compression, industrial adoption, and database problems. Treats the historical narrative itself as a histogram, preserving high-interest events under a fixed space budget and evaluating semantic fidelity. (summarized by gpt-5.6-luna on Jul 24 2026)

Paper ID
h6cdc112dd76a9bd6
Venue
VLDB
Year
2003
Pagerank
0.00022981861
Overall Rank
255 | 98.29%
DOI
10.1016/B978-012722442-8/50011-2

Incoming Non-self Citations Over Time

Authors

BibTeX Citation

@article{ioannidis_vldb03,
        title = {{The History of Histograms (abridged)}},
        author = {Ioannidis, Yannis},
        journal = {PVLDB},
        series = {{VLDB} '03},
        doi = {10.1016/B978-012722442-8/50011-2},
        url = {https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-012722442-8/50011-2},
        year = {2003}
}

Incoming Citations (Sorted by Pagerank)

Showing 50 of 51 citing papers.

Rank Citing Paper Year Venue Pagerank
15 How Good Are Query Optimizers, Really? 2016 VLDB 0.00061066921
311 Order Preserving Encryption for Numeric Data 2004 SIGMOD 0.00021327947
386 Preventing Bad Plans by Bounding the Impact of Cardinality Estimation Errors 2009 VLDB 0.00019444411
402 Worst-case Optimal Join Algorithms 2012 PODS 0.00019104625
461 An End-to-End Learning-based Cost Estimator 2020 VLDB 0.00017829982
569 Towards a Robust Query Optimizer: A Principled and Practical Approach 2005 SIGMOD 0.00016245271
707 On Synopses for Distinct-Value Estimation Under Multiset Operations 2007 SIGMOD 0.00014640173
888 Pay-as-you-go User Feedback for Dataspace Systems 2008 SIGMOD 0.00013255989
1,060 Lightweight Graphical Models for Selectivity Estimation Without Independence Assumptions 2011 VLDB 0.00012224575
1,117 Adaptive Range Filters for Cold Data: Avoiding Trips to Siberia 2013 VLDB 0.00011953704
1,257 Sampling-Based Query Re-Optimization 2016 SIGMOD 0.00011310561
1,508 Self-Tuning, GPU-Accelerated Kernel Density Models for Multidimensional Selectivity Estimation 2015 SIGMOD 0.00010440205
1,535 Top-k Query Evaluation with Probabilistic Guarantees 2004 VLDB 0.00010331242
1,580 Deep Learning Models for Selectivity Estimation of Multi-Attribute Queries 2020 SIGMOD 0.00010180835
1,890 Generating Targeted Queries for Database Testing 2008 SIGMOD 9.4193315e-05
2,006 IO-Top-k: Index-access Optimized Top-k Query Processing 2006 VLDB 9.199795e-05
2,155 Brighthouse: An Analytic Data Warehouse for Ad-hoc Queries 2008 VLDB 8.9456729e-05
2,291 GORDIAN: Efficient and Scalable Discovery of Composite Keys 2006 VLDB 8.6872323e-05
2,522 Learned Cardinality Estimation: A Design Space Exploration and A Comparative Evaluation 2022 VLDB 8.3477168e-05
2,728 Weighted Hypertree Decompositions and Optimal Query Plans 2004 PODS 8.0895728e-05
2,787 EVA: A Symbolic Approach to Accelerating Exploratory Video Analytics with Materialized Views 2022 SIGMOD 8.0158999e-05
2,846 FactorJoin: A New Cardinality Estimation Framework for Join Queries 2023 SIGMOD 7.9453616e-05
2,891 Query Optimizers: Time to Rethink the Contract? 2009 SIGMOD 7.9021718e-05
3,090 Correlation Sketches for Approximate Join-Correlation Queries 2021 SIGMOD 7.6584982e-05
3,367 Exact Cardinality Query Optimization for Optimizer Testing 2009 VLDB 7.3719456e-05
3,562 Astrid: Accurate Selectivity Estimation for String Predicates using Deep Learning 2021 VLDB 7.2046519e-05
4,462 DigitHist: a Histogram-Based Data Summary with Tight Error Bounds 2017 VLDB 6.5880099e-05
5,580 Bloom Histogram: Path Selectivity Estimation for XML Data with Updates 2004 VLDB 6.0769576e-05
5,815 Exploiting Ordered Dictionaries to Efficiently Construct Histograms with Q-Error Guarantees in SAP HANA 2014 SIGMOD 5.9844993e-05
5,840 Pre-training Summarization Models of Structured Datasets for Cardinality Estimation 2022 VLDB 5.9737703e-05
5,973 Understanding Cardinality Estimation using Entropy Maximization 2010 PODS 5.9306716e-05
6,486 Approximate Summaries for Why and Why-not Provenance 2020 VLDB 5.7686627e-05
6,639 Approximating and Testing k-Histogram Distributions in Sub-linear Time 2012 PODS 5.7259633e-05
6,884 LPLM: A Neural Language Model for Cardinality Estimation of LIKE-Queries 2024 SIGMOD 5.6563432e-05
7,513 Computing A Well-Representative Summary of Conjunctive Query Results 2024 PODS 5.5049463e-05
8,206 Probabilistic Histograms for Probabilistic Data 2009 VLDB 5.3778354e-05
8,272 NOAH: Interactive Spreadsheet Exploration with Dynamic Hierarchical Overviews 2021 VLDB 5.3643259e-05
8,276 Consistent and Flexible Selectivity Estimation for High-Dimensional Data 2021 SIGMOD 5.3641556e-05
8,576 Histograms as a Side Effect of Data Movement for Big Data 2014 SIGMOD 5.3111243e-05
9,113 Presto’s History-based Query Optimizer 2024 VLDB 5.2276066e-05
9,387 Optimality and Scalability in Lattice Histogram Construction 2009 VLDB 5.1868213e-05
9,570 Determining Exact Quantiles with Randomized Summaries 2024 SIGMOD 5.1571823e-05
9,632 Small Selectivities Matter: Lifting the Burden of Empty Samples 2021 SIGMOD 5.1472849e-05
9,910 Cardinality Estimation for Similarity Search on High-Dimensional Data Objects: The Impact of Reference Objects 2025 VLDB 5.1103839e-05
10,205 Turbo-Charging SPJ Query Plans with Learned Physical Join Operator Selections 2022 VLDB 5.0603873e-05
10,909 Incremental Query Optimizer Statistics in Amazon Redshift 2026 VLDB 4.9793485e-05
11,257 ACE: A Cardinality Estimator for Set-Valued Queries 2025 VLDB 4.9793485e-05
11,290 Cardinality Estimation for Having-Clauses 2025 VLDB 4.9793485e-05
12,319 Are Few Bins Enough: Testing Histogram Distributions 2016 PODS 4.9793485e-05
12,549 Statistics Collection in Oracle Spatial and Graph: Fast Histogram Construction for Complex Geometry Objects 2013 VLDB 4.9793485e-05
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Outgoing Citations (Sorted by Pagerank)

Showing 50 of 55 cited papers.

Citations counted here include only citations to other VLDB/SIGMOD/CIDR/PODS papers in this database.

Rank Cited Paper Year Venue Pagerank
9 Online Aggregation 1997 SIGMOD 0.00076195956
36 Accurate Estimation Of The Number Of Tuples Satisfying A Condition 1984 SIGMOD 0.00047863192
37 Improved Histograms for Selectivity Estimation of Range Predicates 1996 SIGMOD 0.00047731453
91 On the Propagation of Errors in the Size of Join Results 1991 SIGMOD 0.0003475226
98 LEO - DB2's LEarning Optimizer 2001 VLDB 0.00034106982
103 Selectivity Estimation Without the Attribute Value Independence Assumption 1997 VLDB 0.00033894985
119 Equi-Depth Histograms For Estimating Selectivity Factors For Multi-Dimensional Queries 1988 SIGMOD 0.0003137356
124 Approximate Frequency Counts over Data Streams 2002 VLDB 0.00030600691
135 Ripple Joins for Online Aggregation 1999 SIGMOD 0.00029866033
138 Join Synopses for Approximate Query Answering 1999 SIGMOD 0.00029627449
169 Wavelet-Based Histograms for Selectivity Estimation 1998 SIGMOD 0.00027134723
222 Approximate Computation of Multidimensional Aggregates of Sparse Data Using Wavelets 1999 SIGMOD 0.00024218831
232 Adaptive Selectivity Estimation Using Query Feedback 1994 SIGMOD 0.00023792809
242 Fast Incremental Maintenance of Approximate Histograms 1997 VLDB 0.00023363722
252 Approximate Medians and other Quantiles in One Pass and with Limited Memory 1998 SIGMOD 0.00023050233
275 Optimal Histograms with Quality Guarantees 1998 VLDB 0.00022413521
283 Balancing Histogram Optimality and Practicality for Query Result Size Estimation 1995 SIGMOD 0.00022214789
286 Selectivity Estimation using Probabilistic Models 2001 SIGMOD 0.0002211981
309 Approximate Query Processing Using Wavelets 2000 VLDB 0.00021384073
312 Surfing Wavelets on Streams: One-Pass Summaries for Approximate Aggregate Queries 2001 VLDB 0.00021311793
353 The Query By Image Content (QBIC) System 1995 SIGMOD 0.00020222998
371 STHoles: A Multidimensional Workload-Aware Histogram 2001 SIGMOD 0.00019829769
448 Histogram-Based Approximation of Set-Valued Query Answers 1999 VLDB 0.00018129161
450 Random Sampling Techniques for Space Efficient Online Computation of Order Statistics of Large Datasets 1999 SIGMOD 0.00018032912
454 Self-tuning Histograms: Building Histograms Without Looking at Data 1999 SIGMOD 0.00017962189
519 Random Sampling for Histogram Construction: How much is enough? 1998 SIGMOD 0.00016942879
646 Exploiting Statistics on Query Expressions for Optimization 2002 SIGMOD 0.0001520859
701 Independence is Good: Dependency-Based Histogram Synopses for High-Dimensional Data 2001 SIGMOD 0.00014680907
742 Dynamic Multidimensional Histograms 2002 SIGMOD 0.0001431602
785 A One-Pass Algorithm for Accurately Estimating Quantiles for Disk-Resident Data 1997 VLDB 0.00014005637
806 Universality of Serial Histograms 1993 VLDB 0.00013792174
862 How to Summarize the Universe: Dynamic Maintenance of Quantiles 2002 VLDB 0.00013396995
866 Approximating Multi-Dimensional Aggregate Range Queries Over Real Attributes 2000 SIGMOD 0.00013381261
919 Estimating the Selectivity of XML Path Expressions for Internet Scale Applications 2001 VLDB 0.00013083677
1,004 Dynamic Maintenance of Wavelet-Based Histograms 2000 VLDB 0.00012594522
1,077 Multi-dimensional Selectivity Estimation Using Compressed Histogram Information 1999 SIGMOD 0.00012154948
1,163 Estimating Alphanumeric Selectivity in the Presence of Wildcards 1996 SIGMOD 0.00011750813
1,173 Wavelet Synopses with Error Guarantees 2002 SIGMOD 0.00011686985
1,184 An Instant and Accurate Size Estimation Method for Joins and Selection in a Retrieval-Intensive Environment 1993 SIGMOD 0.00011611937
1,461 Substring Selectivity Estimation 1999 PODS 0.00010583833
1,687 Global Optimization of Histograms 2001 SIGMOD 9.8655879e-05
1,741 Combining Histograms and Parametric Curve Fitting for Feedback-Driven Query Result-Size Estimation 1999 VLDB 9.7382372e-05
1,820 A Scalable Hash Ripple Join Algorithm 2002 SIGMOD 9.5690887e-05
1,960 StatiX: Making XML Count 2002 SIGMOD 9.3125715e-05
2,162 Selectivity Estimation in Spatial Databases 1999 SIGMOD 8.935022e-05
2,181 Probabilistic Optimization of Top N Queries 1999 VLDB 8.9082736e-05
2,368 Statistical Synopses for Graph-Structured XML Databases 2002 SIGMOD 8.5622073e-05
2,827 Estimating the Selectivity of Spatial Queries Using the 'Correlation' Fractal Dimension 1995 VLDB 7.967335e-05
3,184 Structure and Value Synopses for XML Data Graphs 2002 VLDB 7.5577589e-05
3,269 Multi-Dimensional Substring Selectivity Estimation 1999 VLDB 7.4756338e-05
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Semantically Similar Papers

# Overall Rank Paper Year Venue
1 242 Fast Incremental Maintenance of Approximate Histograms 1997 VLDB
2 1,687 Global Optimization of Histograms 2001 SIGMOD
3 12,319 Are Few Bins Enough: Testing Histogram Distributions 2016 PODS
4 283 Balancing Histogram Optimality and Practicality for Query Result Size Estimation 1995 SIGMOD
5 6,639 Approximating and Testing k-Histogram Distributions in Sub-linear Time 2012 PODS
6 11,939 Data-Independent Space Partitionings for Summaries 2021 PODS
7 37 Improved Histograms for Selectivity Estimation of Range Predicates 1996 SIGMOD
8 9,142 Histograms Reloaded: The Merits of Bucket Diversity 2010 SIGMOD
9 5,534 Fast and Near–Optimal Algorithms for Approximating Distributions by Histograms 2015 PODS
10 742 Dynamic Multidimensional Histograms 2002 SIGMOD