Abstract: In recent years，the database community has witnessed a growing interest in skyline computation，mainly due to the awareness of its importance in many applications involving multi-criteria decision making，data mining，and database visualization.Centralized skyline computation has been extensively studied，and some effective algorithms have been proposed，such as BNL，NN，BBS，etc.Distributed skyline computation has also received considerable attention recently，and studies have been conducted on distributed databases，mobile ad-hoc networks，and peer-to-peer networks.Furthermore，the study of skyline has also been extended in different directions，like subsky，skycube，k-dominant skyline，spatial skyline and so on.In despite of the extensive study on skyline computation，there is no survey on this topic in the literature.In this paper，the author conducts a comprehensive survey on skyline computation techniques.And introduces the typical skyline computation algorithms，analyzes their characteristics，compares them with each other，and outlines the directions for future research.