摘要 |
Arrangement of fields in binary tree nodes provides a minimal storage encoding storing fixed and variable length keys in factored form in a multilevel tree. A locating method, and apparatus embodying that method, directed by an argument key, which may or may not be stored in the tree, traces a path following arcs upward or downward between nodes in said binary tree, starting from the top node or any other node, until it finds either the argument key or the delta arc where said argument key would be inserted into said tree. The novel binary tree encoding also provides for path tracing starting at a data backpointer field, which allows accessing of neighboring data entries in collating sequence order.
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