Data structure for efficient multi-parameters search

Question

I have collection of multidimensional object (e.g class Person = {age : int , height : int, weight : int etc...}). I need to query the collection with queries where some dimensions are fixed and the rest unspecified (e.g getallPersonWith {age = c , height = a} or getAllPersonWith {weigth = d}...)

Right now i have a multimap with {age, Height,...} (e.g all dimension that can be fixed) -> List : Person.To perform a query i first compute the set of keys that verify the query, then merge the corresponding list from the map. Is there anything better, in terms of query speed ? in particular is there anything closer to using one sorted list by dimension (which i believe to be the fastest solutions, but too cumbersome to manage:) )

Just to be clear, i am not looking for an sql query.

Answer 1

For your purpose you can have a look at: http://code.google.com/p/cqengine/

Should get you in the right direction