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Tree-based Indexing

  • Reference work entry
Encyclopedia of Database Systems

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Synonyms

Index Sequential Access Method (ISAM); B+-tree; R-tree

Definition

Consider a relation R with some numeric attribute A taking values over an (ordered) domain D. A range query retrieves all tuples in R whose attribute A has values in the interval [low, high]. That is, low ≤ R.A ≤ high. To enable fast processing of range selection queries, an access method that maintains order is needed. Such an index has the form of a tree, where each node corresponds to a page. Leaf nodes contain (or index) the actual values of A, while index nodes provide ordered access to the nodes underneath. Examples of tree-based indexing are the B+-tree and the R-tree (for single- and multi-dimensional ranges, respectively).

Key Points

A major performance goal of a database management system is to minimize the number of I/O’s (i.e., blocks or pages transferred) between the disk and main memory. One way to achieve this goal is to minimize the number of I/O’s when answering a query. Consider for example...

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Recommended Reading

  1. Elmasri R.A., and Navathe S.B. Fundamentals of Database Systems (5th edn.). Addisson-Wesley, Reading, MA, 2007.

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  2. Manolopoulos, Theodoridis Y., Tsotras. Y., and Vassilis. J., Advanced Database Indexing. Kluwer, Dordecht, 1999.

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  3. Ramakrishnan R. and Gehrke J. Database Management Systems (3rd edn.). McGraw-Hill, NY, 2003.

    MATH  Google Scholar 

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece

    Yannis Manolopoulos

  2. University of Piraeus, Piraeus, Greece

    Yannis Theodoridis

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

    Vassilis J. Tsotras

Authors
  1. Yannis Manolopoulos
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  2. Yannis Theodoridis
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  3. Vassilis J. Tsotras
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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)

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© 2009 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC

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Manolopoulos, Y., Theodoridis, Y., Tsotras, V. (2009). Tree-based 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_755

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