| 摘要 |
<p>A system for database (62) compression by selection (54) and application (52) of one or more data compaction methods to the fields of a database. A compaction method is applied to a field if the field data characteristics satisfy the compaction criteria (60) for that compaction method. The compaction methods are: single-field encoding, multiple-field combining, pattern suppression, numeric substitution, and text compression. These compaction methods create (70) compacted records of integral-byte length which are reduced storage equivalents of the database records. Translation tables and auxiliary tables (66) created by the compaction methods allow the compacted data to be retranslated into a user readable format. The compacted records are partitioned (74) into storage partitions, each containing compacted records of the same length, to form a database image (72). The database image (72) typically resides in a computer systems mass storage while the translation and auxiliary tables (66) reside in the computer system's fast access memory.</p> |
