COMMON PROPERTIES OF SOME MULTIATTRIBUTE FILE SYSTEMS

This paper results from an attempt to unify several different file system design theories. We define a term “partial match pattern” and show that in order to produce file systems optimal with respect to partial match patterns, both the multikey hashing (MKH) method [16] and the multidimensional directory (MDD) method [11] must be in such a form that the number of subdivisions is the same for all domains of keys. We show the conditions for the string homomorphism hashing (SHH) method [15], the MKH method, and the MDD method to be equivalent to one another. We define the so-called Cartesian product files and show that if all records are present, the records in a Cartesian product file form a shortest spanning path in which the Hamming distance between every pair of consecutive records is 1. Thus the SHH method, the MKH method, the MDD method, and the multi-key sorting (MKS) method [10] are linked together. Finally, we show that for both partial and best match queries, the file systems exhibit a common characteristic: Similar records are grouped together. Copyright © 1979 by The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc.