Halloween protection in a multi-version database system

• US 9,547,685 B2
• Filed: 08/18/2015
• Issued: 01/17/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 10/29/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Freedman, Craig Steven, Cunningham, Conor John
• Primary Examiner(s): Chau, Dung K
• Application Number:
  US14/829,325
• Publication Number:
  US 20160048553A1
• Time in Patent Office: 518 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/1873 Versioning file systems, temporal file systems, e.g. file system supporting different historic versions of files
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/215 Improving data quality; Data cleansing, e.g. de-duplication, removing invalid entries or correcting typographical errors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/23 Updating
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2329 using versioning
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2365 Ensuring data consistency and integrity

Abstract

Mitigating problems related to the Halloween problem including where update operations potentially allow the record to be visited more than once during the operation. A method includes accessing an instance of a data store operation statement. The instance of the data store operation statement is executed causing an update or delete to an old version of data store record or creation of a data store record resulting in a new version of the data store record in the case of an update or creation of a data store record and a deleted version of the data store record in the case of a delete in the data store. The instance of the data store operation statement is correlated with the new version of the data store record or the deleted version of the data store record.

Claims

1. In a computing environment, a method of mitigating update errors including where update operations potentially allow a record to be visited more than once during an operation, the method comprising:

accessing an instance of a data store operation statement;

executing the instance of the data store operation statement causing an update or delete to an old version of a data store record or creation of a data store record resulting in a new version of the data store record in the case of an update or creation of a data store record or a deleted version of the data store record in the case of a delete in a data store; and

correlating the instance of the data store operation statement with the new version of the data store record or the deleted version of the data store record, wherein correlating the instance of the data store operation statement with the new version of the data store record prevents the instance of the data store operation statement from reading the new version of the data store record so as to prevent the instance of a data store operation statement from accessing its own changes while not preventing the instance of the data store operation statement from accessing a state of the data store as it existed before the data store operation statement started executing, wherein the state of the data store as it existed before the data store operation statement started executing comprises at least one or more of a record created or a record deleted by a previous data store operation statement.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said correlating the instance of the data store operation statement with the new version of the data store record or the deleted version of the data store record comprises storing the new version of the data store record or the deleted version of the data store record in a list associated with a current transaction that includes records created by the instance of the data store operation statement within the context of the current transaction.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising when performing a read operation, checking the list of records associated with the current transaction to determine if the record was created by the instance of the data store operation statement and should be unreadable or whether the record previously existed and should be readable.

4. The method of claim 2, further comprising when performing a read operation, checking the list of records associated with the current transaction to determine if the record was deleted by the instance of the data store operation statement and should be readable or whether the record previously existed and should be unreadable.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising a same data store operation statement attempting to read the new version of the data store record and as a result of correlating the instance of the data store operation statement with the new version of the data store record, preventing the data store operation statement from reading the new version of the data store record.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising a same data store operation statement attempting to read the deleted version of the data store record and as a result of correlating the instance of the data store operation statement with the deleted version of the data store record, allowing the data store operation statement to read the deleted version of the data store record.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising a different data store operation statement attempting to read the new version of the data store record and as a result of correlating the instance of the data store operation statement with the new version of the data store record, allowing the different data store operation statement to read the new version of the data store record.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising a different data store operation statement attempting to read the deleted version of the data store record and as a result of correlating the instance of the data store operation statement with the deleted version of the data store record, preventing the different data store operation statement from reading the deleted version of the data store record.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the state of the data store as it existed before the data store operation statement started executing comprises the record created by the previous data store operation statement.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the state of the data store as it existed before the data store operation statement started executing comprises the record deleted by the previous data store operation statement.

11. In a computing environment, a computer readable storage device comprising computer executable instructions that when executed by one or more processors cause one or more processors to perform functions for mitigating update errors including where update operations potentially allow a record to be visited more than once during an operation, the functions comprising:

accessing an instance of a data store operation statement;

executing the instance of the data store operation statement causing an update or delete to an old version of a data store record or creation of a data store record resulting in a new version of the data store record in the case of an update or creation of a data store record or a deleted version of the data store record in the case of a delete in a data store; and

correlating the instance of the data store operation statement with the new version of the data store record or the deleted version of the data store record, wherein correlating the instance of the data store operation statement with the new version of the data store record prevents the instance of the data store operation statement from reading the new version of the data store record so as to prevent the instance of a data store operation statement from accessing its own changes while not preventing the instance of the data store operation statement from accessing a state of the data store as it existed before the data store operation statement started executing, wherein the state of the data store as it existed before the data store operation statement started executing comprises at least one or more of a record created or a record deleted by a previous data store operation statement.

12. The computer readable storage device of claim 11, wherein said correlating the instance of the data store operation statement with the new version of the data store record or the deleted version of the data store record comprises storing the new version of the data store record or the deleted version of the data store record in a list associated with a current transaction that includes records created by the instance of the data store operation statement within the context of the current transaction.

13. The computer readable storage device of claim 12, further comprising computer executable instructions that when executed by one or more processors cause when performing a read operation, checking the list of records associated with the current transaction to determine if the record was created by the instance of the data store operation statement and should be unreadable or whether the record previously existed and should be readable.

14. The computer readable storage device of claim 12, further comprising computer executable instructions that when executed by one or more processors cause when performing a read operation, checking the list of records associated with the current transaction to determine if the record was deleted by the instance of the data store operation statement and should be readable or whether the record previously existed and should be unreadable.

15. The computer readable storage device of claim 11, further comprising computer executable instructions that when executed by one or more processors cause the same data store operation statement to attempt to read the new version of the data store record and as a result of correlating the instance of the data store operation statement with the new version of the data store record, preventing the data store operation statement from reading the new version of the data store record.

16. The computer readable storage device of claim 11, further comprising computer executable instructions that when executed by one or more processors cause the same data store operation statement to attempt to read the deleted version of the data store record and as a result of correlating the instance of the data store operation statement with the deleted version of the data store record, allowing the data store operation statement to read the deleted version of the data store record.

17. The computer readable storage device of claim 11, further comprising computer executable instructions that when executed by one or more processors cause a different data store operation statement to attempt to read the new version of the data store record and as a result of correlating the instance of the data store operation statement with the new version of the data store record, allowing the different data store operation statement to read the new version of the data store record.

18. The computer readable storage device of claim 11, further comprising computer executable instructions that when executed by one or more processors cause a different data store operation statement to attempt to read the deleted version of the data store record and as a result of correlating the instance of the data store operation statement with the deleted version of the data store record, preventing the different data store operation statement from reading the deleted version of the data store record.

19. In a computing environment, a computing system configured to mitigate update errors including where update operations potentially allow a record to be visited more than once during an operation, the system comprising:

one or more physical processors;

one or more computer readable storage media coupled to the one or more processors, wherein the computer readable storage medium comprises computer executable instructions that when executed by one or more of the one or more processors cause the following actions to be performed;

accessing an instance of a data store operation statement;

executing the instance of the data store operation statement causing an update or delete to an old version of a data store record or creation of a data store record resulting in a new version of the data store record in the case of an update or creation of a data store record or a deleted version of the data store record in the case of a delete in a data store; and

correlating the instance of the data store operation statement with the new version of the data store record or the deleted version of the data store record, wherein correlating the instance of the data store operation statement with the new version of the data store record prevents the instance of the data store operation statement from reading the new version of the data store record so as to prevent an instance of a data store operation statement from accessing its own changes while not preventing the instance of the data store operation statement from accessing a state of the data store as it existed before the data store operation statement started executing, wherein the state of the data store as it existed before the data store operation statement started executing comprises at least one or more of a record created or a record deleted by a previous data store operation statement.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein said correlating the instance of the data store operation statement with the new version of the data store record or the deleted version of the data store record comprises storing the new version of the data store record or the deleted version of the data store record in a list associated with a current transaction that includes records created by the instance of the data store operation statement within the context of the current transaction.

21. The system of claim 20, the one or more computer readable storage media further comprising computer executable instructions that when executed by one or more processors cause when performing a read operation, checking the list of records associated with the current transaction to determine if the record was created by the instance of the data store operation statement and should be unreadable or whether the record previously existed and should be readable.

22. The system of claim 20, the one or more computer readable storage media further comprising computer executable instructions that when executed by one or more processors cause when performing a read operation, checking the list of records associated with the current transaction to determine if the record was deleted by the instance of the data store operation statement and should be readable or whether the record previously existed and should be unreadable.

23. The system of claim 19, the one or more computer readable storage media further comprising computer executable instructions that when executed by one or more processors cause the same data store operation statement to attempt to to read the new version of the data store record and as a result of correlating the instance of the data store operation statement with the new version of the data store record, preventing the data store operation statement from reading the new version of the data store record.

24. The system of claim 19, the one or more computer readable storage media further comprising computer executable instructions that when executed by one or more processors cause the same data store operation statement to attempt to read the deleted version of the data store record and as a result of correlating the instance of the data store operation statement with the deleted version of the data store record, allowing the data store operation statement to read the deleted version of the data store record.

25. The system of claim 19, the one or more computer readable storage media further comprising computer executable instructions that when executed by one or more processors cause a different data store operation statement to attempt to read the new version of the data store record and as a result of correlating the instance of the data store operation statement with the new version of the data store record, allowing the different data store operation statement to read the new version of the data store record.

26. The system of claim 19, the one or more computer readable storage media further comprising computer executable instructions that when executed by one or more processors cause a different data store operation statement to attempt to read the deleted version of the data store record and as a result of correlating the instance of the data store operation statement with the deleted version of the data store record, preventing the different data store operation statement from reading the deleted version of the data store record.