Overview of Storage and
Indexing
CSCD34 - Data Management Systems - A. Vaisman
Data on External Storage
Disks: Can retrieve random page at fixed cost
But reading several consecutive pages is much cheaper than
reading them in random order
Tapes: Can only read pages in sequence
Cheaper than disks; used for archival storage
File organization: Method of arranging a file of records
on external storage.
Record id (rid) is sufficient to physically locate record
Indexes are data structures that allow us to find the record
ids of records with given values in index search key fields
Architecture: Buffer manager stages pages from
external storage to main memory buffer pool. File and
index layers make calls to the buffer manager. Page:
typically 4 Kbytes.
CSCD34 - Data Management Systems - A. Vaisman
Alternative File Organizations
Many alternatives exist, each ideal for some
situations, and not so good in others:
Heap (random order) files: Suitable when typical
access is a file scan retrieving all records.
Sorted Files: Best if records must be retrieved in
some order, or only a `range of records is
needed.
Indexes: Data structures to organize records via
trees or hashing.
Like sorted files, they speed up searches for a subset of
records, based on values in certain (search key) fields
Updates are much faster than in sorted files.
CSCD34 - Data Management Systems - A. Vaisman
Indexes
An index on a file speeds up selections on
the search key fields for the index.
Any subset of the fields of a relation can be the
search key for an index on the relation.
Search key is not the same as key (minimal set
of fields that uniquely identify a record in a
relation).
An index contains a collection of data
entries, and supports efficient retrieval of
all data entries k* with a given key value k.
CSCD34 - Data Management Systems - A. Vaisman
Index Classification
Primary vs. secondary: If search key contains
primary key, then called primary index.
Unique index: Search key contains a candidate key.
Clustered vs. unclustered: If order of data
records is the same as order of data entries,
then called clustered index.
A file can be clustered on at most one search key.
Cost of retrieving data records through index varies
greatly based on whether index is clustered or not!
CSCD34 - Data Management Systems - A. Vaisman
Index Classification
Dense vs Sparse: If there is an entry in the
index for each key value -> dense index
(unclustered indices are dense). If there is
an entry for each page -> sparse index.
1
5
..
..
1
2
3
4
Brown ..
Smith..
White ..
Yu ..
5 Chen ..
6 Peterson..
7 Rhodes..
..
CSCD34 - Data Management Systems - A. Vaisman
Brown
Chen
Peterson
Rhodes
Smith
Yu
White
Clustered vs. Unclustered
Index
To build clustered index, first sort the Heap file
(with some free space on each page for future
inserts).
Overflow pages may be needed for inserts. (Thus,
order of data recs is `close to, but not identical to,
the sort order.)
CLUSTERED
Index entries
direct search for
data entries
UNCLUSTERED
Data entries
Data entries
(Index File)
(Data file)
Data Records
CSCD34 - Data Management Systems - A. Vaisman
Data Records
Example B+ Tree
Root
17
Entries <= 17
5
2*
3*
Entries > 17
27
13
5*
7* 8*
14* 16*
22* 24*
30
27* 29*
33* 34* 38* 39*
Good for range queries.
Insert/delete: Find data entry in leaf,
then change it. Need to adjust parent
sometimes. All leaves at he same height.
CSCD34 - Data Management Systems - A. Vaisman
Hash-Based Indexes
Good for equality selections.
Index is a collection of buckets. Bucket =
primary page plus zero or more overflow
pages.
Hashing function h: h(r) = bucket in which
record r belongs. h looks at the search key
fields of r.
Buckets may contain the data records or
just the rids.
Hash-based indexes are best for equality
selections. Cannot support range searches
CSCD34 - Data Management Systems - A. Vaisman
Static Hashing
# primary pages fixed, allocated sequentially, never deallocated; overflow pages if needed.
h(k) mod N = bucket to which data entry with key k
belongs. (N = # of buckets)
Long overflow chains can develop and degrade
performance.
Extendible and Linear Hashing: Dynamic techniques to
0
fix h(key)
this. mod N
2
key
N-1
Primary bucket pages
CSCD34 - Data Management Systems - A. Vaisman
Overflow pages
10
Static Hashing (Contd.)
Buckets contain data entries.
Hash fn works on search key field of record
r. Must distribute values over range 0 ... M1.
h(key) = (a * key + b) usually works well.
a and b are constants; lots known about how to
tune h.
CSCD34 - Data Management Systems - A. Vaisman
11
Cost Model for Our Analysis
We ignore CPU costs, for simplicity:
B: The number of data pages
R: Number of records per page
D: (Average) time to read or write disk page
Measuring number of page I/Os ignores gains
of pre-fetching a sequence of pages; thus,
even I/O cost is only approximated.
Average-case analysis; based on several
simplistic assumptions.
Good enough to show the overall trends!
CSCD34 - Data Management Systems - A. Vaisman
12
Comparing File Organizations
Heap files (random order; insert at eof)
Sorted files, sorted on <age, sal>
Clustered B+ tree file, Alternative (1),
search key <age, sal>
Heap file with unclustered B + tree
index on search key <age, sal>
Heap file with unclustered hash index
on search key <age, sal>
CSCD34 - Data Management Systems - A. Vaisman
13
Operations to Compare
Scan: Fetch all records from disk
Equality search
Range selection
Insert a record
Delete a record
CSCD34 - Data Management Systems - A. Vaisman
14
Cost of Operations
(1) Heap
(a) Scan
(b) Equality
(c ) Range
(d) Insert
(e) Delete
BD
0.5BD
BD
2D
Search
+D
Search
+BD
Search
+D
Search
+ 2D
Dlog 2 B +
# matches
(3) Clustered
1.5BD
Dlog F 1.5B Dlog 2 1.5B
+ # matches
(4) Unclustered BD(R+0.15) D(1 +log F Dlog F
Tree index
0.15B)
0.15B
+ # matches
(5) Unclustered BD(R+0.1 2D
BD
Hash index
25)
(2) Sorted
BD
Dlog 2B
B: The number of data pages
R: Number of records per page
D: (Average) time to read or write disk page
CSCD34 - Data Management Systems - A. Vaisman
Search
+ BD
Search
+D
D(3 +log F
0.15B)
4D
Search
+ 2D
Several
assumptions
underlie these
(rough)
estimates!
15
Choice of Indexes
What indexes should we create?
One approach: Consider the most important queries
in turn. Consider the best plan using the current
indexes, and see if a better plan is possible with an
additional index. If so, create it.
Obviously, this implies that we must understand how a
DBMS evaluates queries and creates query evaluation plans!
For now, we discuss simple 1-table queries.
Before creating an index, must also consider the
impact on updates in the workload!
Trade-off: Indexes can make queries go faster, updates
slower. Require disk space, too.
CSCD34 - Data Management Systems - A. Vaisman
16
Index Selection Guidelines
Attributes in WHERE clause are candidates for index
keys.
Exact match condition suggests hash index.
Range query suggests tree index.
Clustering is especially useful for range queries; can also help
on equality queries if there are many duplicates.
Multi-attribute search keys should be considered
when a WHERE clause contains several conditions.
Try to choose indexes that benefit as many queries
as possible. Since only one index can be clustered
per relation, choose it based on important queries
that would benefit the most from clustering.
CSCD34 - Data Management Systems - A. Vaisman
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Examples of Clustered
Indexes
B+ tree index on E.age can be
used to get qualifying tuples.
SELECT E.dno, COUNT
FROM Emp E
If many tuples have E.age > 10,
WHERE E.age>10
using E.age index and sorting the
GROUP BY E.dno
Consider the GROUP BY query.
How selective is the condition?
Is the index clustered?
SELECT E.dno
FROM Emp E
WHERE E.age>40
(*
retrieved tuples may be costly.
Clustered E.dno index may be
better!
Equality queries and duplicates: SELECT E.dno
Clustering on E.hobby helps!
CSCD34 - Data Management Systems - A. Vaisman
FROM Emp E
WHERE E.hobby=Stamp
18
Indexes with Composite
Search Keys
Composite Search Keys:
Search on a combination of
fields.
Equality query: Every field value
is equal to a constant value. E.g.
wrt <sal,age> index:
age=20 and sal =75
Range query: Some field value is
not a constant. E.g.:
age =20; or age=20 and sal > 10
Data entries in index sorted
by search key to support
range queries.
Order or attributes is relevant.
CSCD34 - Data Management Systems - A. Vaisman
Examples of composite key
11,80
11
12,10
12
12,20
13,75
<age, sal>
10,12
20,12
75,13
name age sal
bob 12
10
cal 11
80
joe 12
20
sue 13
75
12
13
<age>
10
Data records
sorted by name
80,11
<sal, age>
Data entries in index
sorted by <sal,age>
20
75
80
<sal>
Data entries
sorted by <sal>
19
Composite Search Keys
To retrieve Emp records with age=30 AND
sal=4000, an index on <age,sal> would be better
than an index on age or an index on sal.
If condition is: 20<age<30 AND 3000<sal<5000:
Clustered tree index on <age,sal> or <sal,age> is best.
If condition is: age=30 AND 3000<sal<5000:
Choice of index key orthogonal to clustering etc.
Clustered <age,sal> index much better than <sal,age>
index!
Composite indexes are larger, updated more often.
CSCD34 - Data Management Systems - A. Vaisman
20
Summary (Contd.)
Data entries can be actual data records,
<key, rid> pairs, or <key, rid-list> pairs.
Choice orthogonal to indexing technique used to
locate data entries with a given key value.
Can have several indexes on a given file of
data records, each with a different search key.
Indexes can be classified as clustered vs.
unclustered, primary vs. secondary, and
dense vs. sparse. Differences have important
consequences for utility/performance.
CSCD34 - Data Management Systems - A. Vaisman
21
Summary (Contd.)
Understanding the nature of the workload for the
application, and the performance goals, is
essential to developing a good design.
What are the important queries and updates? What
attributes/relations are involved?
Indexes must be chosen to speed up important
queries (and perhaps some updates!).
Index maintenance overhead on updates to key fields.
Choose indexes that can help many queries, if possible.
Build indexes to support index-only strategies.
Clustering is an important decision; only one index on a
given relation can be clustered!
Order of fields in composite index key can be important.
CSCD34 - Data Management Systems - A. Vaisman
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