Abstract: The invention herein provides method and apparatus for managing attribute-tagged index entries contained in an index by assigning or tagging an index entry attribute indicator to a newly inserted index entry (that is, at the time when a key data value is inserted into the index, the key data value becomes a newly inserted index entry and an attribute indicator is tagged to the newly inserted index entry). The index entry can be placed anywhere within the index. Once a group of attribute-tagged index entries have been inserted into the index, the attribute identifiers can be switched off instantaneously (that is, the attribute associated with the attribute indicators is disabled).

Abstract: A system and associated method load an input data stream into a multi-dimensional clustering (MDC) table or other structure containing data clustered along one or more dimensions, by assembling blocks of data in a partial block cache in which each partial block is associated with a distinct logical cell. A minimum threshold number of partial blocks may be maintained. Partial blocks may be spilled from the partial block cache to make room for new logical cells. Last partial pages of spilled partial blocks may be stored in a partial page cache to limit I/O if the cell associated with a spilled block is encountered later in the input data stream. Buffers may be reassigned from the partial block cache to the partial page cache if the latter is filled. Parallelism may be employed for efficiency during sorting of input data subsets and during storage of blocks to secondary storage.

Abstract: A system and method handle resource transaction requests. The system marks a waiting transaction request, having an access mode which is incompatible with the access mode of the executing transaction, with an ignore bit, so that a transaction request with an access mode compatible with the access mode of the executing transaction may receive a lock in order to access the resource. The transaction request is then marked with a bypass indicator such that when the executing transactions are finished accessing the resource, the waiting transaction request may be notified that it may have access to the resource. The system includes the ignore bit so that each transaction request that arrives after the ignore bit has been set, does not suffer from a long waiting time before being provided access to the resource.

Abstract: A computer system for the indexing of data in which a heuristic determination function is applied to predict an efficient index updating approach. The system is able to update an index relating to a first data set by incrementally updating the index or by a rebuild of the index at the completion of the addition of a second set of data to the first set of data. The system applies a heuristic determination function to the characteristics of the first set of data, its index, and the second set of data, to predict whether an incremental update or a rebuild update of the index will result in a more efficient rebuild of the data. The system applies this approach to a restore and rollforward recovery or a data load operation to improve the efficiency of these operations.

Abstract: Disclosed is a data processing system, a data processing system-implemented method and an article of manufacture for providing general user availability while integrity processing of rolled-in data is deferred and performed incrementally. The data processing system includes a data warehouse administration module for administering a data warehouse to include a table dividable into portions for containing rows of rolled-in data, a first and a second delimiter delimiting the start and the end respectively of each portion, a metadata element having an entry corresponding to the start and end delimiters delimiting each portion, a third delimiter for delimiting, between the first delimiter and the third delimiter, a sub-portion of the portion, and an operations management module having operation mechanisms for performing operations on the data warehouse responsive to the delimiters.

Abstract: A system and associated method load an input data stream into a multi-dimensional clustering (MDC) table or other structure containing data clustered along one or more dimensions, by assembling blocks of data in a partial block cache in which each partial block is associated with a distinct logical cell. A minimum threshold number of partial blocks may be maintained. Partial blocks may be spilled from the partial block cache to make room for new logical cells. Last partial pages of spilled partial blocks may be stored in a partial page cache to limit I/O if the cell associated with a spilled block is encountered later in the input data stream. Buffers may be reassigned from the partial block cache to the partial page cache if the latter is filled. Parallelism may be employed for efficiency during sorting of input data subsets and during storage of blocks to secondary storage.

Abstract: A method for ordering a first and a second character string is disclosed. The method comprises determining which of the two character strings has a lower collating weight according to a first dictionary sort order table with a non-unique collating sequence, and determining which of the two character strings has a lower collating weight according to a second dictionary sort order table with a unique collating sequence.

Abstract: The invention herein provides method and apparatus for managing attribute-tagged index entries contained in an index by assigning or tagging an index entry attribute indicator to a newly inserted index entry (that is, at the time when a key data value is inserted into the index, the key data value becomes a newly inserted index entry and an attribute indicator is tagged to the newly inserted index entry). The index entry can be placed anywhere within the index. Once a group of attribute-tagged index entries have been inserted into the index, the attribute identifiers can be switched off instantaneously (that is, the attribute associated with the attribute indicators is disabled).

Abstract: A system and method handle resource transaction requests. The system marks a waiting transaction request, having an access mode which is incompatible with the access mode of the executing transaction, with an ignore bit, so that a transaction request with an access mode compatible with the access mode of the executing transaction may receive a lock in order to access the resource. The transaction request is then marked with a bypass indicator such that when the executing transactions are finished accessing the resource, the waiting transaction request may be notified that it may have access to the resource.