UNIT VI

FILE STRUCTURE AND INDEXING

Database System Concepts, 5th Ed.

©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
See www.db-book.com for conditions on re-use
 Classification of Physical Storage
Media
 Speed with which data can be accessed
 Cost per unit of data
 Reliability
 data loss on power failure or system crash
 physical failure of the storage device
 Can differentiate storage into:
 volatile storage: loses contents when power is
switched off
 non-volatile storage:
 Contents persist even when power is
switched off.
 Includes secondary and tertiary storage, as
well as battery-backed up main-memory.

Database System Concepts - 5th Edition 11.2 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Physical Storage Media

 Cache – fastest and most costly form of storage;

volatile; managed by the computer system
hardware
 (Note: “Cache” is pronounced as “cash”)
 Main memory:
 fast access (10s to 100s of nanoseconds; 1
nanosecond = 10–9 seconds)
 generally too small (or too expensive) to store
the entire database
 capacities of up to a few Gigabytes widely
used currently
 Capacities have gone up and per-byte costs
have decreased steadily and rapidly (roughly
factor of 2 every 2 to 3 years)
 Volatile — contents of main memory are usually
lost if a power failure or system crash occurs.
Database System Concepts - 5th Edition 11.3 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Physical Storage Media (Cont.)
 Flash memory
 Data survives power failure
 Data can be written at a location only once, but
location can be erased and written to again
 Can support only a limited number (10K – 1M)
of write/erase cycles.
 Erasing of memory has to be done to an
entire bank of memory
 Reads are roughly as fast as main memory
 But writes are slow (few microseconds), erase
is slower

Database System Concepts - 5th Edition 11.4 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Physical Storage Media (Cont.)
 Flash memory
 NOR Flash
 Fast reads, very slow erase, lower capacity
 Used to store program code in many
embedded devices
 NAND Flash
 Page-at-a-time read/write, multi-page erase
 High capacity (several GB)
 Widely used as data storage mechanism in
portable devices

Database System Concepts - 5th Edition 11.5 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Physical Storage Media (Cont.)

 Magnetic-disk
 Data is stored on spinning disk, and read/written
magnetically
 Primary medium for the long-term storage of data;
typically stores entire database.
 Data must be moved from disk to main memory for
access, and written back for storage
 direct-access – possible to read data on disk in any
order, unlike magnetic tape
 Survives power failures and system crashes
 disk failure can destroy data: is rare but does
happen

Database System Concepts - 5th Edition 11.6 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Physical Storage Media (Cont.)
 Optical storage
 non-volatile, data is read optically from a spinning
disk using a laser
 CD-ROM (640 MB) and DVD (4.7 to 17 GB) most
popular forms
 Write-one, read-many (WORM) optical disks used for
archival storage (CD-R, DVD-R, DVD+R)
 Multiple write versions also available (CD-RW, DVD-
RW, DVD+RW, and DVD-RAM)
 Reads and writes are slower than with magnetic
disk
 Juke-box systems, with large numbers of removable
disks, a few drives, and a mechanism for automatic
loading/unloading of disks available for storing large
volumes of data

Database System Concepts - 5th Edition 11.7 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Physical Storage Media (Cont.)
 Tape storage
 non-volatile, used primarily for backup (to
recover from disk failure), and for archival data
 sequential-access – much slower than disk
 very high capacity (40 to 300 GB tapes
available)
 tape can be removed from drive  storage
costs much cheaper than disk, but drives are
expensive
 Tape jukeboxes available for storing massive
amounts of data
 hundreds of terabytes (1 terabyte = 109 bytes)
to even a petabyte (1 petabyte = 10 12 bytes)

Database System Concepts - 5th Edition 11.8 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Storage Hierarchy

Database System Concepts - 5th Edition 11.9 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Storage Hierarchy (Cont.)
 primary storage: Fastest media but volatile (cache,
main memory).
 secondary storage: next level in hierarchy, non-
volatile, moderately fast access time
 also called on-line storage
 E.g. flash memory, magnetic disks
 tertiary storage: lowest level in hierarchy, non-
volatile, slow access time
 also called off-line storage
 E.g. magnetic tape, optical storage

Database System Concepts - 5th Edition 11.10 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Magnetic Hard Disk Mechanism

NOTE: Diagram is schematic, and simplifies the structure of actual disk drives
Database System Concepts - 5th Edition 11.11 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Magnetic Disks
 Read-write head
 Positioned very close to the platter surface (almost
touching it)
 Reads or writes magnetically encoded information.
 Surface of platter divided into circular tracks
 Over 50K-100K tracks per platter on typical hard disks
 Each track is divided into sectors.
 Sector size typically 512 bytes
 Typical sectors per track: 500 (on inner tracks) to
1000 (on outer tracks)
 To read/write a sector
 disk arm swings to position head on right track
 platter spins continually; data is read/written as
sector passes under head

Database System Concepts - 5th Edition 11.12 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Magnetic Disks (Cont.)
 Head-disk assemblies
 multiple disk platters on a single spindle (1 to 5
usually)
 one head per platter, mounted on a common
arm.
 Cylinder i consists of ith track of all the platters
 Earlier generation disks were susceptible to “head-
crashes” leading to loss of all data on disk
 Current generation disks are less susceptible to
such disastrous failures, but individual sectors
may get corrupted

Database System Concepts - 5th Edition 11.13 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Disk Controller
 Disk controller – interfaces between the computer
system and the disk drive hardware.
 accepts high-level commands to read or write a
sector
 initiates actions such as moving the disk arm to
the right track and actually reading or writing the
data
 Computes and attaches checksums to each
sector to verify that data is read back correctly
 If data is corrupted, with very high probability
stored checksum won’t match recomputed
checksum
 Ensures successful writing by reading back sector
after writing it
 Performs remapping of bad sectors
Database System Concepts - 5th Edition 11.14 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Disk Subsystem

 Disk interface standards families

 ATA (AT adaptor) range of standards
 SATA (Serial ATA)
 SCSI (Small Computer System Interconnect) range
of standards
 Several variants of each standard (different speeds
and capabilities)

Database System Concepts - 5th Edition 11.15 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Performance Measures of Disks
 Access time – the time it takes from when a read or
write request is issued to when data transfer begins.
Consists of:
 Seek time – time it takes to reposition the arm over
the correct track.
 Average seek time is 1/2 the worst case seek
time.
– Would be 1/3 if all tracks had the same number
of sectors, and we ignore the time to start and
stop arm movement
4 to 10 milliseconds on typical disks
 Rotational latency – time it takes for the sector to
be accessed to appear under the head.
 Average latency is 1/2 of the worst case latency.
4 to 11 milliseconds on typical disks (5400 to
15000 r.p.m.)
Database System Concepts - 5th Edition 11.16 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Performance Measures (Cont.)
 Data-transfer rate – the rate at which data can be
retrieved from or stored to the disk.
 25 to 100 MB per second max rate, lower for inner
tracks
 Multiple disks may share a controller, so rate that
controller can handle is also important
 E.g. ATA-5: 66 MB/sec, SATA: 150 MB/sec, Ultra
320 SCSI: 320 MB/s
 Fiber Channel (FC2Gb): 256 MB/s

Database System Concepts - 5th Edition 11.17 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Performance Measures (Cont.)
 Mean time to failure (MTTF) – the average time the
disk is expected to run continuously without any
failure.
 Typically 3 to 5 years
 Probability of failure of new disks is quite low,
corresponding to a theoretical MTTF of 500,000 to
1,200,000 hours for a new disk
 E.g., an MTTF of 1,200,000 hours for a new disk
means that given 1000 relatively new disks, on
an average one will fail every 1200 hours
 MTTF decreases as disk ages

Database System Concepts - 5th Edition 11.18 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Optical Disks
 Compact disk-read only memory (CD-ROM)
 Seek time about 100 msec (optical read head is
heavier and slower)
Higher latency (3000 RPM) and lower data-

transfer rates (3-6 MB/s) compared to magnetic
disks
 Digital Video Disk (DVD)
 DVD-5 holds 4.7 GB , variants up to 17 GB
 Slow seek time, for same reasons as CD-ROM
 Record once versions (CD-R and DVD-R)

Database System Concepts - 5th Edition 11.19 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Magnetic Tapes
 Hold large volumes of data and provide high transfer rates
 Few GB for DAT (Digital Audio Tape) format, 10-40 GB with
DLT (Digital Linear Tape) format, 100 – 400 GB+ with
Ultrium format, and 330 GB with Ampex helical scan
format
Transfer rates from few to 10s of MB/s

 Currently the cheapest storage medium
 Tapes are cheap, but cost of drives is very high
 Very slow access time in comparison to magnetic disks and
optical disks
 limited to sequential access.
 Some formats (Accelis) provide faster seek (10s of
seconds) at cost of lower capacity
 Used mainly for backup, for storage of infrequently used
information, and as an off-line medium for transferring
information from one system to another.
 Tape jukeboxes used for very large capacity storage
 (terabyte (1012 bytes) to petabye (1015 bytes)

Database System Concepts - 5th Edition 11.20 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Storage Access
 A database file is partitioned into fixed-length
storage units called blocks. Blocks are units of
both storage allocation and data transfer.
 Database system seeks to minimize the number of
block transfers between the disk and memory. We
can reduce the number of disk accesses by
keeping as many blocks as possible in main
memory.
 Buffer – portion of main memory available to store
copies of disk blocks.
 Buffer manager – subsystem responsible for
allocating buffer space in main memory.

Database System Concepts - 5th Edition 11.21 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Buffer Manager
 Programs call on the buffer manager when they need a
block from disk.
 Buffer manager does the following:
 If the block is already in the buffer, return the
address of the block in main memory
1. If the block is not in the buffer
1. Allocate space in the buffer for the block
1. Replacing (throwing out) some other block, if
required, to make space for the new block.
2. Replaced block written back to disk only if it
was modified since the most recent time that
it was written to/fetched from the disk.
2. Read the block from the disk to the buffer, and
return the address of the block in main memory
to requester.
Database System Concepts - 5th Edition 11.22 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Buffer-Replacement Policies

 Most operating systems replace the block least recently

used (LRU strategy)
 Idea behind LRU – use past pattern of block references as a
predictor of future references
 Queries have well-defined access patterns (such as
sequential scans), and a database system can use the
information in a user’s query to predict future references
 LRU can be a bad strategy for certain access patterns
involving repeated scans of data
 e.g. when computing the join of 2 relations r and s by a
nested loops
for each tuple tr of r do
for each tuple ts of s do
if the tuples tr and ts match …
 Mixed strategy with hints on replacement strategy
provided
by the query optimizer is preferable
Database System Concepts - 5th Edition 11.23 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Buffer-Replacement Policies
(Cont.)
 Pinned block – memory block that is not allowed to be
written back to disk.
 Toss-immediate strategy – frees the space occupied by
a block as soon as the final tuple of that block has been
processed
 Most recently used (MRU) strategy – system must pin
the block currently being processed. After the final
tuple of that block has been processed, the block is
unpinned, and it becomes the most recently used block.
 Buffer manager can use statistical information regarding
the probability that a request will reference a particular
relation
 E.g., the data dictionary is frequently accessed.
Heuristic: keep data-dictionary blocks in main
memory buffer
 Buffer managers also support forced output of blocks for
the purpose of recovery (more in Chapter 17)

Database System Concepts - 5th Edition 11.24 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 File Organization
 The database is stored as a collection of files.
Each file is a sequence of records. A record is a
sequence of fields.
 One approach:
assume record size is fixed
each file has records of one particular type only
different files are used for different relations
This case is easiest to implement; will consider
variable length records later.

Database System Concepts - 5th Edition 11.25 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Fixed-Length Records
 Simple approach:
 Store record i starting from byte n  (i – 1), where n is
the size of each record.
 Record access is simple but records may cross
blocks
 Modification: do not allow records to cross block
boundaries
 Deletion of record i:
alternatives:
 move records i + 1, . . ., n
to i, . . . , n – 1
 move record n to i
 do not move records, but
link all free records on a
free list

Database System Concepts - 5th Edition 11.26 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Free Lists
 Store the address of the first deleted record in the file header.
 Use this first record to store the address of the second
deleted record, and so on
 Can think of these stored addresses as pointers since they
“point” to the location of a record.
 More space efficient representation: reuse space for normal
attributes of free records to store pointers. (No pointers
stored in in-use records.)

Database System Concepts - 5th Edition 11.27 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Variable-Length Records
 Variable-length records arise in database
systems in several ways:
 Storage of multiple record types in a file.
 Record types that allow variable lengths for
one or more fields.
 Record types that allow repeating fields
(used in some older data models).

Database System Concepts - 5th Edition 11.28 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Variable-Length Records: Slotted Page
Structure

 Slotted page header contains:

 number of record entries
 end of free space in the block
 location and size of each record
 Records can be moved around within a page to keep
them contiguous with no empty space between
them; entry in the header must be updated.
 Pointers should not point directly to record —
instead they should point to the entry for the record
in header.
Database System Concepts - 5th Edition 11.29 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Organization of Records in Files
 Heap – a record can be placed anywhere in the file
where there is space
 Sequential – store records in sequential order,
based on the value of the search key of each
record
 Hashing – a hash function computed on some
attribute of each record; the result specifies in
which block of the file the record should be placed
 Records of each relation may be stored in a
separate file. In a multitable clustering file
organization records of several different relations
can be stored in the same file
 Motivation: store related records on the same
block to minimize I/O

Database System Concepts - 5th Edition 11.30 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Sequential File Organization
 Suitable for applications that require
sequential processing of the entire file
 The records in the file are ordered by a
search-key

Database System Concepts - 5th Edition 11.31 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Sequential File Organization
(Cont.)
 Deletion – use pointer chains
 Insertion –locate the position where the record is to be
inserted
 if there is free space insert there
 if no free space, insert the record in an overflow
block
 In either case, pointer chain must be updated
 Need to reorganize the file
from time to time to restore
sequential order

Database System Concepts - 5th Edition 11.32 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Multitable Clustering File Organization
(cont.)

 Store several relations in one file using a

multitable clustering file organization
 Multitable clustering organization of customer
and depositor:

 good for queries involving depositor

customer, and for queries involving one single
customer and his accounts
 bad for queries involving only customer
Database System Concepts - 5th Edition 11.33 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Data Dictionary Storage
Data dictionary (also called system catalog)
stores metadata: that is, data about data,
such as
 Information about relations
 names of relations
 names and types of attributes of each relation
 names and definitions of views
 integrity constraints
 User and accounting information, including
passwords
 Statistical and descriptive data
 number of tuples in each relation
 Physical file organization information
 How relation is stored (sequential/hash/…)
 Physical location of relation
 Information about indices (Chapter 12)

Database System Concepts - 5th Edition 11.34 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Data Dictionary Storage (Cont.)
 Catalog structure
 Relational representation on disk
 specialized data structures designed for
efficient access, in memory
 A possible catalog
Relation_metadata representation:
= (relation_name,
number_of_attributes,
storage_organization, location)
Attribute_metadata = (relation_name, attribute_name,
domain_type,
position, length)
User_metadata = (user_name,
encrypted_password, group)
Index_metadata = (relation_name, index_name,
index_type,
index_attributes)
View_metadata = (view_name, definition)
Database System Concepts - 5th Edition 11.35 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Record Representation
 Records with fixed length fields are easy to
represent
 Similar to records (structs) in programming
languages
 Extensions to represent null values
 E.g. a bitmap indicating which attributes are
null
 Variable length fields can be represented by a pair
(offset, length)
offset: the location within the record, length:
field length.
All fields
A-102 start10
at 400
predefined location, but extra
000 Perryridge
indirection required
account_num for variable length fields
balance
ber branch_namenull-bitmap

Example record structure of account

Database System Concepts -record
th
5 Edition 11.36 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Basic Concepts of Indexing
 Indexing mechanisms used to speed up access to
desired data.
 E.g., author catalog in library
 Search Key - attribute to set of attributes used to look
up records in a file.
 An index file consists of records (called index entries)
of the form
search-key pointer

 Index files are typically much smaller than the original

file
 Two basic kinds of indices:
 Ordered indices: search keys are stored in sorted
order
 Hash indices: search keys are distributed uniformly
across “buckets” using a “hash function”.
Database System Concepts - 5th Edition 11.37 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Index Evaluation Metrics
 Access types supported efficiently. E.g.,
 records with a specified value in the attribute
 or records with an attribute value falling in a
specified range of values (e.g. 10000 < salary <
40000)
 Access time
 Insertion time
 Deletion time
 Space overhead

Database System Concepts - 5th Edition 11.38 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Ordered Indices

 In an ordered index, index entries are stored sorted on

the search key value. E.g., author catalog in library.
 Primary index: in a sequentially ordered file, the index
whose search key specifies the sequential order of
the file.
 Also called clustering index
 The search key of a primary index is usually but not
necessarily the primary key.
 Secondary index: an index whose search key
specifies an order different from the sequential order
of the file. Also called
non-clustering index.
 Index-sequential file: ordered sequential file with a
primary index.

Database System Concepts - 5th Edition 11.39 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Dense Index Files
 Dense index — Index record appears for every
search-key value in the file.

Database System Concepts - 5th Edition 11.40 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Sparse Index Files
 Sparse Index: contains index records for only some search-key values.
 Applicable when records are sequentially ordered on search-key
 To locate a record with search-key value K we:
 Find index record with largest search-key value < K
 Search file sequentially starting at the record to which the index
record points

Database System Concepts - 5th Edition 11.41 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Sparse Index Files (Cont.)
 Compared to dense indices:
 Less space and less maintenance overhead for
insertions and deletions.
 Generally slower than dense index for locating
records.
 Good tradeoff: sparse index with an index entry for
every block in file, corresponding to least search-key
value in the block.

Database System Concepts - 5th Edition 11.42 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Multilevel Index
 If primary index does not fit in memory, access
becomes expensive.
 Solution: treat primary index kept on disk as a
sequential file and construct a sparse index on it.
 outer index – a sparse index of primary index
 inner index – the primary index file
 If even outer index is too large to fit in main
memory, yet another level of index can be created,
and so on.
 Indices at all levels must be updated on insertion
or deletion from the file.

Database System Concepts - 5th Edition 11.43 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Multilevel Index (Cont.)

Database System Concepts - 5th Edition 11.44 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Index Update: Record Deletion
 If deleted record was the only record in the file with its
particular search-key value, the search-key is deleted from
the index also.
 Single-level index deletion:
 Dense indices – deletion of search-key: similar to file
record deletion.
 Sparse indices –
 if deleted key value exists in the index, the value is
replaced by the next search-key value in the file (in
search-key order).
 If the next search-key value already has an index entry,
the entry is deleted instead of being replaced.

Database System Concepts - 5th Edition 11.45 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Index Update: Record Insertion
 Single-level index insertion:
 Perform a lookup using the key value from
inserted record
 Dense indices – if the search-key value does not
appear in the index, insert it.
 Sparse indices – if index stores an entry for each
block of the file, no change needs to be made to
the index unless a new block is created.
 If a new block is created, the first search-key
value appearing in the new block is inserted
into the index.
 Multilevel insertion (as well as deletion) algorithms
are simple extensions of the single-level algorithms

Database System Concepts - 5th Edition 11.46 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Secondary Indices Example

Secondary index on balance field of account

 Index record points to a bucket that contains pointers to

all the actual records with that particular search-key value.
 Secondary indices have to be dense

Database System Concepts - 5th Edition 11.47 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Primary and Secondary Indices
 Indices offer substantial benefits when searching
for records.
 BUT: Updating indices imposes overhead on
database modification --when a file is modified,
every index on the file must be updated,
 Sequential scan using primary index is efficient,
but a sequential scan using a secondary index is
expensive
 Each record access may fetch a new block from
disk
 Block fetch requires about 5 to 10 micro
seconds, versus about 100 nanoseconds for
memory access

Database System Concepts - 5th Edition 11.48 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 B+-Tree Index Files

B+-tree indices are an alternative to indexed-sequential files.

 Disadvantage of indexed-sequential files
 performance degrades as file grows, since many
overflow blocks get created.
 Periodic reorganization of entire file is required.
 Advantage of B+-tree index files:
 automatically reorganizes itself with small, local,
changes, in the face of insertions and deletions.
 Reorganization of entire file is not required to
maintain performance.
 (Minor) disadvantage of B+-trees:
 extra insertion and deletion overhead, space
overhead.
 Advantages of B+-trees outweigh disadvantages
 B+-trees are used extensively

Database System Concepts - 5th Edition 11.49 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 B+-Tree Index Files (Cont.)
A B+-tree is a rooted tree satisfying the following properties:

 All paths from root to leaf are of the same length

 Each node that is not a root or a leaf has between
n/2 and n children.
 A leaf node has between (n–1)/2 and n–1 values
 Special cases:
 If the root is not a leaf, it has at least 2 children.
 If the root is a leaf (that is, there are no other
nodes in the tree), it can have between 0 and (n–1)
values.

Database System Concepts - 5th Edition 11.50 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 B+-Tree Node Structure
 Typical node

 Ki are the search-key values

 Pi are pointers to children (for non-leaf nodes) or
pointers to records or buckets of records (for
leaf nodes).
 The search-keys in a node are ordered

K1 < K2 < K3 < . . . < Kn–1

Database System Concepts - 5th Edition 11.51 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Leaf Nodes in B+-Trees
Properties of a leaf node:
 For i = 1, 2, . . ., n–1, pointer Pi either points to a file
record with search-key value Ki, or to a bucket of
pointers to file records, each record having search-
key value Ki. Only need bucket structure if search-
key does not form a primary key.
 If Li, Lj are leaf nodes and i < j, Li’s search-key
values are less than Lj’s search-key values
 Pn points to next leaf node in search-key order

Database System Concepts - 5th Edition 11.52 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Non-Leaf Nodes in B+-Trees
 Non leaf nodes form a multi-level sparse index on the
leaf nodes. For a non-leaf node with m pointers:
 All the search-keys in the subtree to which P1 points
are less than K1
 For 2  i  n – 1, all the search-keys in the subtree to
which Pi points have values greater than or equal to
Ki–1 and less than Ki
 All the search-keys in the subtree to which Pn points
have values greater than or equal to Kn–1

Database System Concepts - 5th Edition 11.53 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Example of a B+-tree

B+-tree for account file (n = 3)

Database System Concepts - 5th Edition 11.54 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Example of B+-tree

B+-tree for account file (n = 5)

 Leaf nodes must have between 2 and 4 values

((n–1)/2 and n –1, with n = 5).
 Non-leaf nodes other than root must have
between 3 and 5 children ((n/2 and n with n =5).
 Root must have at least 2 children.

Database System Concepts - 5th Edition 11.55 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Observations about B+-trees
 Since the inter-node connections are done by pointers,
“logically” close blocks need not be “physically” close.
 The non-leaf levels of the B+-tree form a hierarchy of
sparse indices.
 The B+-tree contains a relatively small number of levels
 Level below root has at least 2* n/2 values
 Next level has at least 2* n/2 * n/2 values
 .. etc.
 If there are K search-key values in the file, the tree
height is no more than  logn/2(K)
 thus searches can be conducted efficiently.
 Insertions and deletions to the main file can be handled
efficiently, as the index can be restructured in
logarithmic time (as we shall see).

Database System Concepts - 5th Edition 11.56 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Queries on B+-Trees
 Find all records with a search-key value of k.
1. N=root
2. Repeat
1. Examine N for the smallest search-key value > k.
2. If such a value exists, assume it is Ki. Then set N = Pi
3. Otherwise k  Kn–1. Set N = Pn
Until N is a leaf node
3. If for some i, key Ki = k follow pointer Pi to the desired record
or bucket.
4. Else no record with search-key value k exists.

Database System Concepts - 5th Edition 11.57 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Queries on B+-Trees (Cont.)
 If there are K search-key values in the file, the
height of the tree is no more than logn/2(K).
 A node is generally the same size as a disk block,
typically 4 kilobytes
 and n is typically around 100 (40 bytes per index
entry).
 With 1 million search key values and n = 100
 at most log50(1,000,000) = 4 nodes are accessed
in a lookup.
 Contrast this with a balanced binary tree with 1
million search key values — around 20 nodes are
accessed in a lookup
 above difference is significant since every node
access may need a disk I/O, costing around 20
milliseconds

Database System Concepts - 5th Edition 11.58 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Updates on B+-Trees: Insertion

1. Find the leaf node in which the search-key value

would appear
2. If the search-key value is already present in the
leaf node
1. Add record to the file
3. If the search-key value is not present, then
1. add the record to the main file (and create a
bucket if necessary)
2. If there is room in the leaf node, insert (key-
value, pointer) pair in the leaf node
3. Otherwise, split the node (along with the new
(key-value, pointer) entry) as discussed in the
next slide.

Database System Concepts - 5th Edition 11.59 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Updates on B +-Trees: Insertion
(Cont.)
 Splitting a leaf node:
 take the n (search-key value, pointer) pairs (including
the one being inserted) in sorted order. Place the
first n/2 in the original node, and the rest in a new
node.
 let the new node be p, and let k be the least key
value in p. Insert (k,p) in the parent of the node being
split.
 If the parent is full, split it and propagate the split
further up.
 Splitting of nodes proceeds upwards till a node that is
not full is found.
 In the worst case the root node may be split
increasing the height of the tree by 1.

Result of splitting node containing Brighton and Downtown on

inserting Clearview
Next step: insert entry with (Downtown,pointer-to-new-node)
Database System Concepts - 5th Edition 11.60 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Updates on B -Trees: Insertion
(Cont.)

B+-Tree before and after insertion of “Clearview”

Database System Concepts - 5th Edition 11.61 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Insertion in B+-Trees (Cont.)
 Splitting a non-leaf node: when inserting (k,p) into
an already full internal node N
 Copy N to an in-memory area M with space for
n+1 pointers and n keys
 Insert (k,p) into M
 Copy P1,K1, …, K n/2-1 ,P n/2 from M back into
node N
 Copy Pn/2+1,K n/2+1,…,Kn,Pn+1 from M into newly
allocated node N’
 Insert (K n/2,N’) into parent N
 Read pseudocode in book! Mianus

Downtown Mianus Perryridge Downtown Redwood

Database System Concepts - 5th Edition 11.62 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Updates on B+-Trees: Deletion
 Find the record to be deleted, and remove it from the
main file and from the bucket (if present)
 Remove (search-key value, pointer) from the leaf node if
there is no bucket or if the bucket has become empty
 If the node has too few entries due to the removal, and
the entries in the node and a sibling fit into a single
node, then merge siblings:
 Insert all the search-key values in the two nodes into
a single node (the one on the left), and delete the
other node.
 Delete the pair (Ki–1, Pi), where Pi is the pointer to the
deleted node, from its parent, recursively using the
above procedure.

Database System Concepts - 5th Edition 11.63 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Updates on B+-Trees: Deletion
 Otherwise, if the node has too few entries due to
the removal, but the entries in the node and a
sibling do not fit into a single node, then
redistribute pointers:
 Redistribute the pointers between the node and
a sibling such that both have more than the
minimum number of entries.
 Update the corresponding search-key value in
the parent of the node.
 The node deletions may cascade upwards till a
node which has n/2 or more pointers is found.
 If the root node has only one pointer after deletion,
it is deleted and the sole child becomes the root.

Database System Concepts - 5th Edition 11.64 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Examples of B+-Tree Deletion

Before and after deleting “Downtown”

 Deleting “Downtown” causes merging of under-full leaves
 leaf node can become empty only for n=3!

Database System Concepts - 5th Edition 11.65 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Examples of B +-Tree Deletion
(Cont.)

Before and After deletion of “Perryridge”

from result of previous example

Database System Concepts - 5th Edition 11.66 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Examples of B +-Tree Deletion
(Cont.)

 Leaf with “Perryridge” becomes underfull (actually empty, in this special

case) and merged with its sibling.
 As a result “Perryridge” node’s parent became underfull, and was merged
with its sibling
 Value separating two nodes (at parent) moves into merged node
 Entry deleted from parent
 Root node then has only one child, and is deleted

Database System Concepts - 5th Edition 11.67 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Example of B+-tree Deletion (Cont.)

Before and after deletion of “Perryridge” from earlier

 example
Parent of leaf containing Perryridge became underfull, and
borrowed a pointer from its left sibling
 Search-key value in the parent’s parent changes as a result
Database System Concepts - 5th Edition 11.68 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 B+-Tree File Organization
 Index file degradation problem is solved by using B +-
Tree indices.
 Data file degradation problem is solved by using B +-Tree
File Organization.
 The leaf nodes in a B+-tree file organization store
records, instead of pointers.
 Leaf nodes are still required to be half full
 Since records are larger than pointers, the maximum
number of records that can be stored in a leaf node
is less than the number of pointers in a nonleaf node.
 Insertion and deletion are handled in the same way as
insertion and deletion of entries in a B +-tree index.

Database System Concepts - 5th Edition 11.69 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 B+-Tree File Organization (Cont.)

Example of B+-tree File Organization

 Good space utilization important since records use more space
than pointers.
 To improve space utilization, involve more sibling nodes in
redistribution during splits and merges
 Involving 2 siblings in redistribution (to avoid split / merge
where possible) results in each node having at least
entries 2n / 3
Database System Concepts - 5th Edition 11.70 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Indexing Strings
 Variable length strings as keys
 Variable fanout
 Use space utilization as criterion for splitting, not
number of pointers
 Prefix compression
 Key values at internal nodes can be prefixes of full
key
 Keep enough characters to distinguish entries
in the subtrees separated by the key value
– E.g. “Silas” and “Silberschatz” can be
separated by “Silb”
 Keys in leaf node can be compressed by sharing
common prefixes

Database System Concepts - 5th Edition 11.71 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 B-Tree Index Files
 Similar to B+-tree, but B-tree allows search-key
values to appear only once; eliminates redundant
storage of search keys.
 Search keys in nonleaf nodes appear nowhere else
in the B-tree; an additional pointer field for each
search key in a nonleaf node must be included.
 Generalized B-tree leaf node

 Nonleaf node – pointers Bi are the bucket or file

record pointers.

Database System Concepts - 5th Edition 11.72 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 B-Tree Index File Example

B-tree (above) and B+-tree (below) on same data

Database System Concepts - 5th Edition 11.73 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 B-Tree Index Files (Cont.)
 Advantages of B-Tree indices:
 May use less tree nodes than a corresponding B +-Tree.
 Sometimes possible to find search-key value before
reaching leaf node.
 Disadvantages of B-Tree indices:
 Only small fraction of all search-key values are found
early
 Non-leaf nodes are larger, so fan-out is reduced. Thus, B-
Trees typically have greater depth than corresponding B +-
Tree
 Insertion and deletion more complicated than in B +-Trees
 Implementation is harder than B +-Trees.
 Typically, advantages of B-Trees do not out weigh
disadvantages.

Database System Concepts - 5th Edition 11.74 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Multiple-Key Access
 Use multiple indices for certain types of queries.
 Example:
select account_number
from account
where branch_name = “Perryridge” and balance =
1000
 Possible strategies for processing query using indices
on single attributes:
1. Use index on branch_name to find accounts with
branch name Perryridge; test balance = 1000
2. Use index on balance to find accounts with
balances of $1000; test branch_name = “Perryridge”.
3. Use branch_name index to find pointers to all
records pertaining to the Perryridge branch.
Similarly use index on balance. Take intersection of
both sets of pointers obtained.

Database System Concepts - 5th Edition 11.75 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Indices on Multiple Keys
 Composite search keys are search keys containing
more than one attribute
 E.g. (branch_name, balance)
 Lexicographic ordering: (a1, a2) < (b1, b2) if either
 a1 < b1, or
 a1=b1 and a2 < b2

Database System Concepts - 5th Edition 11.76 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Indices on Multiple Attributes

Suppose we have an index on combined search-key

(branch_name, balance).
 For
where branch_name = “Perryridge” and balance = 1000
the index on (branch_name, balance) can be used to fetch
only records that satisfy both conditions.
 Using separate indices in less efficient — we may fetch
many records (or pointers) that satisfy only one of the
conditions.
 Can also efficiently handle
where branch_name = “Perryridge” and balance < 1000
 But cannot efficiently handle
where branch_name < “Perryridge” and balance = 1000
 May fetch many records that satisfy the first but not the
second condition

Database System Concepts - 5th Edition 11.77 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Non-Unique Search Keys
 Alternatives:
 Buckets on separate block (bad idea)
 List of tuple pointers with each key
 Low space overhead, no extra cost for
queries
 Extra code to handle read/update of long lists
 Deletion of a tuple can be expensive if there
are many duplicates on search key (why?)
 Make search key unique by adding a record-
identifier
 Extra storage overhead for keys
 Simpler code for insertion/deletion
 Widely used

Database System Concepts - 5th Edition 11.78 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Other Issues in Indexing
 Covering indices
 Add extra attributes to index so (some) queries can avoid
fetching the actual records
 Particularly useful for secondary indices
– Why?
 Can store extra attributes only at leaf
 Record relocation and secondary indices
 If a record moves, all secondary indices that store record
pointers have to be updated
 Node splits in B+-tree file organizations become very
expensive
 Solution: use primary-index search key instead of record
pointer in secondary index
 Extra traversal of primary index to locate record
– Higher cost for queries, but node splits are cheap
 Add record-id if primary-index search key is non-unique

Database System Concepts - 5th Edition 11.79 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Hashing

Database System Concepts, 5th Ed.

©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
See www.db-book.com for conditions on re-use
 Static Hashing

 A bucket is a unit of storage containing one or more

records (a bucket is typically a disk block).
 In a hash file organization we obtain the bucket of a
record directly from its search-key value using a hash
function.
 Hash function h is a function from the set of all search-
key values K to the set of all bucket addresses B.
 Hash function is used to locate records for access,
insertion as well as deletion.
 Records with different search-key values may be
mapped to the same bucket; thus entire bucket has to
be searched sequentially to locate a record.

Database System Concepts - 5th Edition 11.81 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Example of Hash File Organization

Hash file organization of account file, using branch_name as key

(See figure in next slide.)

 There are 10 buckets,

 The binary representation of the ith character is
assumed to be the integer i.
 The hash function returns the sum of the binary
representations of the characters modulo 10
 E.g. h(Perryridge) = 5 h(Round Hill) = 3
h(Brighton) = 3

Database System Concepts - 5th Edition 11.82 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Example of Hash File Organization

Hash file
organization of
account file, using
branch_name as
key
(see previous slide
for details).

Database System Concepts - 5th Edition 11.83 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Hash Functions
 Worst hash function maps all search-key values to the
same bucket; this makes access time proportional to the
number of search-key values in the file.
 An ideal hash function is uniform, i.e., each bucket is
assigned the same number of search-key values from the
set of all possible values.
 Ideal hash function is random, so each bucket will have
the same number of records assigned to it irrespective of
the actual distribution of search-key values in the file.
 Typical hash functions perform computation on the
internal binary representation of the search-key.
 For example, for a string search-key, the binary
representations of all the characters in the string
could be added and the sum modulo the number of
buckets could be returned. .

Database System Concepts - 5th Edition 11.84 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Handling of Bucket Overflows
 Bucket overflow can occur because of
 Insufficient buckets
 Skew in distribution of records. This can occur due
to two reasons:
 multiple records have same search-key value
 chosen hash function produces non-uniform
distribution of key values
 Although the probability of bucket overflow can be
reduced, it cannot be eliminated; it is handled by using
overflow buckets.

Database System Concepts - 5th Edition 11.85 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Handling of Bucket Overflows
(Cont.)

 Overflow chaining – the overflow buckets of a given

bucket are chained together in a linked list.
 Above scheme is called closed hashing.
 An alternative, called open hashing, which does not
use overflow buckets, is not suitable for database
applications.

Database System Concepts - 5th Edition 11.86 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Hash Indices
 Hashing can be used not only for file organization, but
also for index-structure creation.
 A hash index organizes the search keys, with their
associated record pointers, into a hash file structure.
 Strictly speaking, hash indices are always secondary
indices
 if the file itself is organized using hashing, a separate
primary hash index on it using the same search-key
is unnecessary.
 However, we use the term hash index to refer to both
secondary index structures and hash organized files.

Database System Concepts - 5th Edition 11.87 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Example of Hash Index

Database System Concepts - 5th Edition 11.88 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Deficiencies of Static Hashing
 In static hashing, function h maps search-key values to a
fixed set of B of bucket addresses. Databases grow or
shrink with time.
 If initial number of buckets is too small, and file grows,
performance will degrade due to too much overflows.
 If space is allocated for anticipated growth, a
significant amount of space will be wasted initially (and
buckets will be underfull).
 If database shrinks, again space will be wasted.
 One solution: periodic re-organization of the file with a new
hash function
 Expensive, disrupts normal operations
 Better solution: allow the number of buckets to be modified
dynamically.

Database System Concepts - 5th Edition 11.89 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Dynamic Hashing
 Good for database that grows and shrinks in size
 Allows the hash function to be modified dynamically
 Extendable hashing – one form of dynamic hashing
 Hash function generates values over a large range —
typically b-bit integers, with b = 32.
 At any time use only a prefix of the hash function to
index into a table of bucket addresses.
 Let the length of the prefix be i bits, 0  i  32.
 Bucket address table size = 2i. Initially i = 0
 Value of i grows and shrinks as the size of the
database grows and shrinks.
 Multiple entries in the bucket address table may point
to a bucket (why?)
 Thus, actual number of buckets is < 2i
 The number of buckets also changes dynamically
due to coalescing and splitting of buckets.

Database System Concepts - 5th Edition 11.90 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 General Extendable Hash Structure

In this structure, i2 = i3 = i, whereas i1 = i – 1

(see next slide for details)

Database System Concepts - 5th Edition 11.91 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Use of Extendable Hash Structure
 Each bucket j stores a value ij
 All the entries that point to the same bucket have the same
values on the first ij bits.
 To locate the bucket containing search-key Kj:
1. Compute h(Kj) = X
2. Use the first i high order bits of X as a displacement into bucket
address table, and follow the pointer to appropriate bucket
 To insert a record with search-key value Kj
 follow same procedure as look-up and locate the bucket, say j.
 If there is room in the bucket j insert record in the bucket.
 Else the bucket must be split and insertion re-attempted (next
slide.)
 Overflow buckets used instead in some cases (will see
shortly)

Database System Concepts - 5th Edition 11.92 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Insertion in Extendable Hash Structure
(Cont)
To split a bucket j when inserting record with search-key value Kj:
 If i > ij (more than one pointer to bucket j)
 allocate a new bucket z, and set ij = iz = (ij + 1)
 Update the second half of the bucket address table entries
originally pointing to j, to point to z
 remove each record in bucket j and reinsert (in j or z)
 recompute new bucket for Kj and insert record in the
bucket (further splitting is required if the bucket is still full)
 If i = ij (only one pointer to bucket j)
 If i reaches some limit b, or too many splits have happened
in this insertion, create an overflow bucket
 Else
 increment i and double the size of the bucket address
table.
 replace each entry in the table by two entries that point
to the same bucket.
 recompute new bucket address table entry for Kj
Now i > ij so use the first case above.
Database System Concepts - 5th Edition 11.93 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Deletion in Extendable Hash
Structure
 To delete a key value,
 locate it in its bucket and remove it.
 The bucket itself can be removed if it becomes empty
(with appropriate updates to the bucket address table).
 Coalescing of buckets can be done (can coalesce only
with a “buddy” bucket having same value of ij and
same ij –1 prefix, if it is present)
 Decreasing bucket address table size is also possible
 Note: decreasing bucket address table size is an
expensive operation and should be done only if
number of buckets becomes much smaller than the
size of the table

Database System Concepts - 5th Edition 11.94 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Use of Extendable Hash Structure:
Example

Initial Hash structure, bucket size = 2

Database System Concepts - 5th Edition 11.95 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Example (Cont.)
 Hash structure after insertion of one Brighton and two
Downtown records

Database System Concepts - 5th Edition 11.96 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Example (Cont.)
Hash structure after insertion of Mianus record

Database System Concepts - 5th Edition 11.97 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Example (Cont.)

Hash structure after insertion of three Perryridge records

Database System Concepts - 5th Edition 11.98 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Example (Cont.)
 Hash structure after insertion of Redwood and Round
Hill records

Database System Concepts - 5th Edition 11.99 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Extendable Hashing vs. Other
Schemes
 Benefits of extendable hashing:
 Hash performance does not degrade with growth of file
 Minimal space overhead
 Disadvantages of extendable hashing
 Extra level of indirection to find desired record
 Bucket address table may itself become very big (larger
than memory)
 Cannot allocate very large contiguous areas on disk
either
 Solution: B+-tree file organization to store bucket
address table
 Changing size of bucket address table is an expensive
operation
 Linear hashing is an alternative mechanism
 Allows incremental growth of its directory (equivalent to
bucket address table)
 At the cost of more bucket overflows

Database System Concepts - 5th Edition 11.100 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Comparison of Ordered Indexing and Hashing

 Cost of periodic re-organization

 Relative frequency of insertions and deletions
 Is it desirable to optimize average access time at the
expense of worst-case access time?
 Expected type of queries:
 Hashing is generally better at retrieving records
having a specified value of the key.
 If range queries are common, ordered indices are to be
preferred
 In practice:
 PostgreSQL supports hash indices, but discourages
use due to poor performance
 Oracle supports static hash organization, but not hash
indices
 SQLServer supports only B+-trees

Database System Concepts - 5th Edition 11.101 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Bitmap Indices
 Bitmap indices are a special type of index designed for
efficient querying on multiple keys
 Records in a relation are assumed to be numbered
sequentially from, say, 0
 Given a number n it must be easy to retrieve record n
 Particularly easy if records are of fixed size
 Applicable on attributes that take on a relatively small
number of distinct values
 E.g. gender, country, state, …
 E.g. income-level (income broken up into a small
number of levels such as 0-9999, 10000-19999,
20000-50000, 50000- infinity)
 A bitmap is simply an array of bits

Database System Concepts - 5th Edition 11.102 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Bitmap Indices (Cont.)
 In its simplest form a bitmap index on an attribute has a
bitmap for each value of the attribute
 Bitmap has as many bits as records
 In a bitmap for value v, the bit for a record is 1 if the
record has the value v for the attribute, and is 0
otherwise

Database System Concepts - 5th Edition 11.103 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Bitmap Indices (Cont.)
 Bitmap indices are useful for queries on multiple attributes
 not particularly useful for single attribute queries
 Queries are answered using bitmap operations
 Intersection (and)
 Union (or)
 Complementation (not)
 Each operation takes two bitmaps of the same size and
applies the operation on corresponding bits to get the
result bitmap
 E.g. 100110 AND 110011 = 100010
100110 OR 110011 = 110111
NOT 100110 = 011001
 Males with income level L1: 10010 AND 10100 = 10000
 Can then retrieve required tuples.
 Counting number of matching tuples is even faster

Database System Concepts - 5th Edition 11.104 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Bitmap Indices (Cont.)
 Bitmap indices generally very small compared with relation
size
 E.g. if record is 100 bytes, space for a single bitmap is
1/800 of space used by relation.
 If number of distinct attribute values is 8, bitmap is
only 1% of relation size
 Deletion needs to be handled properly
 Existence bitmap to note if there is a valid record at a
record location
 Needed for complementation
 not(A=v): (NOT bitmap-A-v) AND ExistenceBitmap
 Should keep bitmaps for all values, even null value
 To correctly handle SQL null semantics for NOT(A=v):
 intersect above result with (NOT bitmap-A-Null)

Database System Concepts - 5th Edition 11.105 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Efficient Implementation of Bitmap
Operations

 Bitmaps are packed into words; a single word and (a basic CPU
instruction) computes and of 32 or 64 bits at once
 E.g. 1-million-bit maps can be and-ed with just 31,250
instruction
 Counting number of 1s can be done fast by a trick:
 Use each byte to index into a precomputed array of 256
elements each storing the count of 1s in the binary
representation
 Can use pairs of bytes to speed up further at a higher
memory cost
 Add up the retrieved counts
 Bitmaps can be used instead of Tuple-ID lists at leaf levels of
B+-trees, for values that have a large number of matching records
 Worthwhile if > 1/64 of the records have that value, assuming
a tuple-id is 64 bits
 Above technique merges benefits of bitmap and B+-tree
indices

Database System Concepts - 5th Edition 11.106 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Index Definition in SQL
 Create an index
create index <index-name> on <relation-
name>
(<attribute-list>)
E.g.: create index b-index on branch(branch_name)
 Use create unique index to indirectly specify and
enforce the condition that the search key is a candidate
key is a candidate key.
 Not really required if SQL unique integrity constraint
is supported
 To drop an index
drop index <index-name>
 Most database systems allow specification of type of
index, and clustering.

Database System Concepts - 5th Edition 11.107 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan