STORING TABLES IN A DATABASE SYSTEM

• US 20110173164A1
• Filed: 10/18/2010
• Published: 07/14/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 01/13/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Stolze, Knut, Czech, Marco, Koeth, Oliver C., Bendel, Peter
• Granted Patent: US 9,020,910 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/693
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24561 Intermediate data storage techniques for performance improvement

Abstract

A method for processing data contained in tables in a relational database includes joining a first table and a second table into a joined table determining metadata for at least one column of a table of the following tables: the first table, the second table, and the joined table. The metadata is used for processing data in the at least one column of the table, and for processing data in at least one column of at least one other table of the following tables: the first table, the second table, and the joined table.

Claims

1. A method for processing data contained in tables in a relational database, the method comprising:

joining a first table and a second table into a joined table;

determining metadata for at least one column of a table of the following tables;

the first table, the second table, and the joined table;

using the metadata for processing data in the at least one column of the table;

using the metadata for processing data in at least one column of at least one other table of the following tables;

the first table, the second table, and the joined table.

2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

performing the metadata determination is on a column in the joined table;

using the determined metadata for processing data in the column of the joined table; and

using the metadata for processing data of a column in the first table.

3. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

performing the metadata determination step on a column in the first table;

using the determined metadata for processing data in the column of the first table; and

using the metadata for processing data of the joined table.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the metadata comprises column attributes.

5. The method according to claim 4, wherein the metadata comprises at least one of the following:

data type of data in a column, scale of data in a column, precision of data in a column, encoding information of data in a column, statistical information of data in a column, logging-related information, and compression parameters of data in a column.

6. The method according to claim 1, further comprising compressing data in the at least one column of the table and compressing data in the at least one column of the at least one other table, wherein the metadata contains at least compression parameters.

7. The method according to claim 6, wherein the metadata comprises at least one of the following:

a dictionary for translating values contained in the respective column into a code, and a histogram of values in the respective column.

8. The method according to claim 6, further comprising storing the compressed table from which the metadata was computed in a main memory of a computing system and storing other compressed tables in external storage devices of the computing system.

9. The method according to claim 8, wherein the joined table is an accelerated query table.

10. A data processing system for carrying out the method according to claim 1.

14. A computer readable storage medium having computer readable instructions stored thereon, that, when executed by a computer, implement the method of claim 1.

11. A data processing system for processing data contained in tables in a relational database, comprising:

a database table joining system configured to join a first table and a second table into a joined table;

a metadata computation system configured to determine metadata for at least one column of a table of the following tables;

the first table, the second table, and the joined table; and

a column processing system configured to use the metadata for processing data in the at least one column of the table, and to use the metadata for processing data in at least one column of at least one other table of the following tables;

the first table, the second table, and the joined table.

12. A data processing system for processing data contained in tables of relational database, comprising:

a database table joining system configured to join a first table and a second table of the database into a joined table;

a metadata computation system configured to determine metadata for at least one column of the joined table; and

a column processing system for processing tables comprising the at least one column using the metadata.

13. The data processing system of claim 12, wherein the column processing system comprises a column compression system configured to compress tables comprising the at least one column using the metadata, and wherein the data processing system further comprises:

a main memory storage space and an external device storage space; and

a table storage system configured to store the compressed joined table in the main memory storage space and to store the compressed first and second tables in the external device storage space.

15. A computer readable storage medium having computer readable instructions stored thereon, that, when executed by a computer, implement a method for processing data contained in tables of a relational database in a computing system, wherein the method comprises:

joining a first table and a second table into a joined table;

determining metadata for at least one column of a table of the following tables;

the first table, the second table, and the joined table;

using the metadata for processing data in the at least one column of the table; and

using the metadata for processing data in at least one column of at least on other of the following tables;

the first table, the second table, and the joined table.

16. The storage medium of claim 15, wherein the method further comprises:

compressing data in the at least one column of the table and compressing data in the at least one column of the at least one other table; and

storing the compressed table from which the metadata was computed in a main memory and storing other compressed tables in external storage devices.