Abstract: Techniques for maintaining a cascading index are provided. In one approach, one or more branch node compression techniques are applied to the main index of a cascading index. In an approach, a Bloom filter is generated and associated with, e.g., a branch node in the main index. The Bloom filter is used to determine whether, without accessing any leaf blocks, a particular key value exists, e.g., in leaf blocks associated with the branch node. In an approach, a new redo record is generated in response to a merge operation between two levels of the cascading index. The new redo record comprises (a) one or more addresses of blocks that are affected by the merge operation, (b) data is that being “pushed down” to a lower level of the cascading index, and (c) one or more addresses of blocks that are written to disk storage as a result of the merge operation.

Abstract: A method, system and computer program product are described for state maintenance of a large object. In one approach, the method, system and computer program product perform by associating one or more buffers with a transaction involving a large object, the large object data may be accessed using the one or more buffers during the transaction, and storing data for the large object from the one or more buffers in one or more sets of contiguous blocks. In one approach, a system performs state maintenance of a large object with a cache that associates one or more buffers with a transaction involving a large object, the large object data may be accessed using the one or more buffers during the transaction, and the cache stores large object data from the one or more buffers in one or more sets of contiguous blocks in storage.

Abstract: Techniques are provided for processing a CREATE INDEX statement that avoids one or more locks on the underlying table. The processing of such a statement may be divided into a build phase and a cooperation phase. During the build phase, a journal table is created and published. A snapshot of the table is obtained after the last DML transaction (that was pending at the time the journal table was published) commits. The index is built based on the state of the table as of the snapshot. Any changes to the table while the index is built are recorded in the journal table. During the cooperation phase, the index is partially published. A subsequent DML statement determines whether any changes in the journal table affect the same data as the subsequent DML statement. If so, then those changes are applied to the index followed by the subsequent DML statement.

Abstract: Disclosed is a system and method for implementing space management for large objects stored in the computing system. According to some approaches, storage of large objects are managed by dynamically creating contiguous chunks of storage space of varying lengths. The length of each chunk may vary depending upon object size being stored, fragmentation of the storage space, available free space, and/or expected length of the object.