Skip to main content
Springer Nature Link
Log in

The choice of partial inversions and combined indices

  • Published:
International Journal of Computer & Information Sciences Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

It is often undesirable or impossible to provide redundant indices for all domains of a file existing on a secondary storage device. The problem considered in this paper is the selection of a limited number of indices which best facilitate interaction with a file. A probabilistic model of interaction activity encompassing queries and updates is presented, and a parametric description of the storage medium is assumed. Significant results which are independent of many file and storage characteristics are found concerning the best choice of indices in two cases. The first is the choice of domains to include in a partial inversion. Here it is desired to find the best possible subset of domains for which to provide indices. The second case concerns the choice of combined indices. In this situation the best way of grouping domains is sought in order to provide one index for each group.

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

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Subscribe and save

Springer+ Basic
$34.99 /Month
  • Get 10 units per month
  • Download Article/Chapter or eBook
  • 1 Unit = 1 Article or 1 Chapter
  • Cancel anytime
Subscribe now

Buy Now

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. E. F. Codd, “A relational model of data for large shared data banks,”CACM 13(6) (1970).

  2. R. Blier and A. Vorhaus, “File organization in the SDC time shared data management (TDMS) system,” inProc. 1968 IFIP Congress.

  3. V. Y. Lum, “Multiattribute retrieval with combined indices,”CACM 13(11) (1970).

  4. F. Palermo, “A quantitative approach to the selection of secondary indexes,”Formatted File Organization Techniques (IBM Research, San Jose, March 1970).

    Google Scholar 

  5. J. Mullin, “Retrieval-update speed tradeoffs using combined indices,”CACM 14(12) (1971).

  6. V. Y. Lum and H. Ling, “An optimization problem on the selection of secondary keys,” inProc. ACM Nat. Conf., 1971.

  7. E. Wong and T. Chiang, “Canonical structure in attribute based file organization,”CACM 14(9) (1971).

  8. CODASYL Systems Committee, “Feature analysis of generalized data base management systems,” May 1971.

  9. E. F. Codd, “A data base sublanguage founded on the relational calculus,” inProc. 1971 ACM-SIGFIDET Workshop on Data Description, Access and Control, San Diego.

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences and the Electronics Research Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, California

    Michael Stonebraker

Authors
  1. Michael Stonebraker
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Additional information

Research sponsored in part by the General Foods Corporation, New York, New York.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Stonebraker, M. The choice of partial inversions and combined indices. International Journal of Computer and Information Sciences 3, 167–188 (1974). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00976642

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00976642

Keywords