Range searching

In computer science, the range searching problem consists of processing a set S of objects, in order to determine which objects from S intersect with a query object, called the range. For example, if S is a set of points corresponding to the coordinates of several cities, find the subset of cities within a given range of latitudes and longitudes.

The range searching problem and the data structures that solve it are a fundamental topic of computational geometry. Applications of the problem arise in areas such as geographical information systems (GIS), computer-aided design (CAD) and databases.