Abstract: Altering tables in a database system may be difficult because the tables may only be altered when all connection to the tables have been released. A free resources parameter may be set on in a management system for the database system to specify that resources should be attempted to be released. Connections to the database may be closed earlier than conventionally closed. For example, connections that are idle may be released. Once the connections have been released the database may be altered and the free resources parameter turned off. The free resources parameter notifies the database system of a pending alteration and allows the database to gracefully close connections to provide an opportunity for the alteration to occur.

Abstract: Values may be interchanged between computers with different computer architectures by implementing a transform function in a database serving the values to the computers. The transform function may convert a value for use on a computer with a different word length than the word length of the computer hosting the database. For example, the database may have 36-bit words, and a client may have 32-bit words. The transform function may operate without data loss and be capable of reversing the transform to enable round trips for data between the database and client.

Abstract: Altering tables in a database system may be difficult because the tables may only be altered when all connection to the tables have been released. A free resources parameter may be set on in a management system for the database system to specify that resources should be attempted to be released. Connections to the database may be closed earlier that conventionally closed. For example, connections that are idle may be released. Once the connections have been released the database may be altered and the free resources parameter turned off. The free resources parameter notifies the database system of a pending alteration and allows the database to gracefully close connections to provide an opportunity for the alteration to occur.

Abstract: Performance of database systems may be improved by reducing the processing performed with each database query. For example, when a database query, such as a SQL statement, is executed with a first set of values, the query may be stored as a prepared statement and parsed and optimized as a section. When a similar database query is executed with a new set of values the section may be re-executed with the new set of values without re-parsing or re-optimizing the prepared statement. A similar database query may continue to be executed with new sets of values until the section is invalid because of an alteration to the table definitions of the database schema.

Abstract: A system and method is provided for inserting an ascending or descending sequence of data records into a database table represented by a tree structure. A search is performed to locate a node of the tree that includes the insertion point for a record in the sequence. If the node must be divided to store the record, it is determined whether division of the node at the insertion point will prevent a subsequently received record in the sequence from being stored on the same node with other records in the sequence irrespective of the storage space available on that node. If so, the node division is performed so that a record that is not in the sequence but that is adjacent to the insertion point is maintained on the same node as the other records in the sequence.

Abstract: A hybrid hash join process joins data rows from two tables which have at least one common data column by partitioning the data rows based on the values in the common data column(s), creating data structures to decrease search time for matching rows, and recovering full data buffers using a unique buffer management methodology. A smaller one of the two tables is designated as an outer table and a larger one of the two tables as an inner table. The hybrid hash join process determines which rows in the inner and outer tables satisfy a selection criteria; the rows that satisfy the selection criteria are referred to as inner hit rows and outer hit rows. The hybrid hash join process assigns the inner and outer hit rows to corresponding inner and outer partitions, respectively. Buffer overflow in the outer partitions is handled by linking empty buffers to the outer partitions until all buffers are used. Buffer space is recovered by writing outer hit rows for a selected partition to mass storage.