An abstract indexing structure called a C-tree that it is an access method that exploits search space "containment" is described. The C-tree structure includes objects spaces that overlap, but search spaces that are disjoint. Every part of the search space is indexed by some node. Moreover, every object has a unique location in the index, despite the object space overlap. The C-tree is a tree of pages, typically disk based, like a B-tree, but it handles a greater variety of data, e.g., spatial data, temporal data, etc. In particular, it can handle the indexing of objects that have extents, not merely point data, and hence objects that can overlap. These objects can be indexed without remapping them to a higher dimensional point space. At least one particular aspect of the invention is premised on a notion of an object being contained in some kind of search space.