Database System Concepts (1) -- Data Storage and Querying

Strorage and File Structure
     File Organization
       Fixed-Length Records
          Difficult to delete a record from this structure
          Some records will cross block boundaries
       Variable-Length Records
           Byte-String Representation: attach a end-of-record
             not easy to reuse space occupied by a deleted record. lead to a large number of small fragment
             no space for records to grow longer
           Fixed-Length Representation
             Reserved space: require a maximum record length
                it is useful when most records have a length close to the maximum length. otherwise, a significant amount of space may be wasted
             List representation: list of fixed-length record chaind together by pointers
                space except the first in a chain may be wasted
   
    Organizaiton of Records in File
       Sequential file organization
          designed for efficient processing of records in sorted order based on some search-key
       Clustering file organization
          store related records of two or more relations together. it is efficient for join operation, but  it results in slowing processing other type of query.
       Heap file organization
          any record is placed anywhere in the file
       Hashing file organization
          hash, hash, hash...