rangeunion

Rangeunion is a term that can refer to several related concepts, primarily within the context of computing and data structures. At its core, a range union operation involves combining two or more distinct numerical ranges into a single, possibly larger, range or a set of non-overlapping ranges. This is a common operation in various areas, including database management, interval arithmetic, and computational geometry.

For instance, in database systems, range union might be used to merge adjacent or overlapping data segments to optimize queries or storage. If you have data stored for the date range of January 1st to January 15th and another for January 10th to January 31st, a range union would combine these into a single range from January 1st to January 31st.

In programming, a range union function would typically take two or more range objects as input and return a new set of ranges that cover the same total span as the input ranges, but without any overlaps. This often involves sorting the input ranges and then iterating through them, merging any that touch or overlap. The result is a canonical representation of the combined span. The specific implementation details can vary depending on the programming language and the data types used to represent ranges.