Hi Jonathan, Is this a public paper you're talking about? Tanel. > ** Footnote - I used to believe it was supposed to > be at 75% because on average a block was somewhere > between half full and full - but I've given a reference to a > paper that demonstrates that the failure to merge in real > time leaves Oracle with a lower value. I haven't yet found > time to read the paper, though. > > > Regards > > Jonathan Lewis > http://www.jlcomp.demon.co.uk > > The educated person is not the person > who can answer the questions, but the > person who can question the answers -- T. Schick Jr > > > Next public appearances: > March 2004 Hotsos Symposium - The Burden of Proof > March 2004 Charlotte NC OUG - CBO Tutorial > April 2004 Iceland > > > One-day tutorials: > http://www.jlcomp.demon.co.uk/tutorial.html > > > Three-day seminar: > see http://www.jlcomp.demon.co.uk/seminar.html > ____UK___February > ____UK___June > > > The Co-operative Oracle Users' FAQ > http://www.jlcomp.demon.co.uk/faq/ind_faq.html > > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: <ryan.gaffuri@xxxxxxx> > To: <oracle-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> > Sent: Friday, February 06, 2004 1:58 PM > Subject: Re: RE: How does Oracle keep B-tree indexes to 3 levels? > > > so nodes can be as sparse as having 1-2 pointers in them? Doesnt this > increase the size of the tree and decrease performance? > > also, does oracle use 'sparse' indexes. With standard dense indexes there is > a pointer to every record in the table. With sparse indexes you get pointers > to a range of records. > > For example. > > You have a column with > > 1 > 2 > 3 > 4 > 5 > > > You might have a pointer to '1' and a pointer to '5'. Does oracle use this? > > > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------- > Please see the official ORACLE-L FAQ: http://www.orafaq.com > ---------------------------------------------------------------- > To unsubscribe send email to: oracle-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx > put 'unsubscribe' in the subject line. > -- > Archives are at //www.freelists.org/archives/oracle-l/ > FAQ is at //www.freelists.org/help/fom-serve/cache/1.html > ----------------------------------------------------------------- > ---------------------------------------------------------------- Please see the official ORACLE-L FAQ: http://www.orafaq.com ---------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe send email to: oracle-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx put 'unsubscribe' in the subject line. -- Archives are at //www.freelists.org/archives/oracle-l/ FAQ is at //www.freelists.org/help/fom-serve/cache/1.html -----------------------------------------------------------------