Database Administrator Guide > Database Administrator Guide > Choosing Storage Structures and Secondary Indexes > Storage Structure Comparison Summary
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Storage Structure Comparison Summary
The following chart is a quick reference for deciding which storage structure to use for traditional Ingres tables.
Ratings in the following chart are as follows: 1‑Excellent, 2‑Good, 3‑OK, 4‑Bad, N/A-not applicable.
Requirement
Heap
Hash
ISAM
B-tree
Pattern matching
4
4
1
1
Range searches
4
4
1
1
Exact-match keyed retrievals
4
1
2
2
Sorted data (without sort-by)
4
4
2
1
Concurrent updates
4
1
1
2
Addition of data without needing to modify
2
3
3
1
Sequential addition of data (incremental key)
1*
2
4
1
Initial bulk copying of data
1
2
2
2
Table growth: none, static
N/A
1
1
2
Table growth: some, periodically plan to modify
N/A
1
1
2
Table growth: great deal — too fast to modify
3
3
3
1
Table size: small (under 15 main pages)
2
1
1
3
Table size: medium (disk space available for any modify)
4
1
1
1
Frequent deletions
4
1
1
3
Frequent updates
4
1
1
2
Secondary index structure
N/A
1
1
1
* Refers to secondary indexes used with a heap table.
Last modified date: 04/03/2024