Patent · US Expired

Compact record format for low-overhead databases

US6360218B1 · kind B1 · utility

25Cited by
8References
12Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateOct 26, 1998
Grant dateMar 19, 2002
Priority date
Expiry dateOct 26, 2018

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC Y)Emerging Cross-Sectional Technologies
  • CPC primaryY10S707/99943
  • WIPO fieldComputer technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

The present invention relates to a table format for representing column data for a relational database in a data file. The table format includes a plurality of records of fixed size. The table format also includes a plurality of columns in each record for holding the column data values, the table being rewritten after changes to its data values. Each record can contain a further non-data column indicating the sequence of the record in the table. Additionally, the size of each column is no larger than necessary to hold the largest column data value in all of the records. At least one of the columns can be designated a primary key—the records being arranged in order of the data values of their primary key columns.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.