Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Valid-Time Indexing

  • Reference work entry
Encyclopedia of Database Systems

  • 61 Accesses

Synonyms

Valid-time access methods

Definition

A valid-time index is a temporal index that enables fast access to valid-time datasets. In a traditional database, an index is used for selection queries. When accessing valid-time databases such selections also involve the valid-time dimension (the time when a fact becomes valid in reality). The characteristics of the valid-time dimension imply various properties that the temporal index should have in order to be efficient. As traditional indices, the performance of a temporal index is described by three costs: (i) storage cost (i.e., the number of pages the index occupies on the disk), (ii) update cost (the number of pages accessed to perform an update on the index; for example when adding, deleting or updating a record), and (iii) query cost (the number of pages accessed for the index to answer a query).

Historical Background

A valid-time database maintains the entire temporal behavior of an enterprise as best known now [13]. It stores...

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 2,500.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Recommended Reading

  1. Arge L. and Vitter J.S. Optimal dynamic interval management in external memory. In Proc. 37th Annual Symp. on Foundations of Computer Science, 1996, pp. 560–569.

    Google Scholar 

  2. Blankenagel G. and Gueting R.H. External segment trees. Algorithmica, 12(6):498–532, 1994.

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  3. Bliujute R., Jensen C.S., Saltenis S., and Slivinskas G. R-tree based indexing of now-relative bi-temporal data. In Proc. ACM SIGMOD Int. Conf. on Management of Data, 1998, pp. 345–356.

    Google Scholar 

  4. Chiang Y.-J. and Silva C.T. External memory techniques for isosurface extraction in scientific visualization, external memory algorithms and visualization. In DIMACS Series in Discrete Mathematics and Theoretical Computer Science, J. Abello, J.S. Vitter (eds.). AMS, vol. 50, 1999, pp. 247–277.

    Google Scholar 

  5. Icking C., Klein R., and Ottmann T. Priority search trees in secondary memory. In Proc. Int. Workshop on Graph Theoretic Concepts in Computer Science, 1988, pp. 84–93.

    Google Scholar 

  6. Kanellakis P., Ramaswamy S., Vengroff D., and Vitter J.S. Indexing for data models with constraint and classes. In Proc. 12th ACM SIGACT-SIGMOD-SIGART Symp. on Principles of Database Systems, 1993, pp. 233–243.

    Google Scholar 

  7. Kolovson C. and Stonebraker M. Segment indexes: dynamic indexing techniques for multi-dimensional interval data. In Proc. ACM SIGMOD Int. Conf. on Management of Data, 1991, pp. 138–147.

    Google Scholar 

  8. Kriegel H-P., Potke M., Seidl T. Managing intervals efficiently in object-relational databases. In Proc. 26th Int. Conf. on Very Large Data Bases, 2000.

    Google Scholar 

  9. Mehlhorn K. Data Structures and Efficient Algorithms, Vol. 3: Multi-dimensional Searching and Computational Geometry. EATCS Monographs, Springer, 1984.

    Google Scholar 

  10. Nascimento M.A. and Dunham M.H. Indexing valid time databases via B+-Trees. IEEE Trans. Knowl. Data Eng., 11(6):929–947, 1999.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Ramaswamy S. and Subramanian S. Path caching: a technique for optimal external searching. In Proc. 13th ACM SIGACT-SIGMOD-SIGART Symp. on Principles of Database Systems, 1994, pp. 25–35.

    Google Scholar 

  12. Salzberg B. and Tsotras V.J. A comparison of access methods for time-evolving data. ACM Comput. Surv., 31(2):158–221, 1999.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Snodgrass R.T. and Ahn I. Temporal databases. IEEE Comput., 19(9):35–42, 1986.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Federal University of Rio Grande do Sol, Porto Alegre, Brazil

    Mirella M. Moro

  2. University of California-Riverside, Riverside, CA, USA

    Vassilis J. Tsotras

Authors
  1. Mirella M. Moro
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Vassilis J. Tsotras
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. College of Computing, Georgia Institute of Technology, 266 Ferst Drive, 30332-0765, Atlanta, GA, USA

    LING LIU (Professor) (Professor)

  2. Database Research Group David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science, University of Waterloo, 200 University Avenue West, N2L 3G1, Waterloo, ON, Canada

    M. TAMER ÖZSU (Professor and Director, University Research Chair) (Professor and Director, University Research Chair)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2009 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC

About this entry

Cite this entry

Moro, M., Tsotras, V. (2009). Valid-Time Indexing. In: LIU, L., ÖZSU, M.T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Database Systems. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-39940-9_1513

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation