A practitioner's guide to addressing algorithms

Abstract

This paper consolidates a number of popular rules of thumb which have been suggested for the design of record addressing algorithms, and discusses the applicability of these rules to large commercial databases. Guidelines for selecting identifier transformations, overflow techniques, loading factors, bucket sizes, and loading order are considered. Particular attention is focused on the reasonableness of common heuristics for determining primary or secondary bucket sizes. A mathematical model which explicitly considers storage device characteristics and time/space cost tradeoffs is used to analyze the effect of design parameters on overall system costs. A specific design example is presented and solved.