Partial-match retrieval for dynamic files

This paper studies file designs for answering partial-match queries for dynamic files. A partial-match query is a specification of the value of zero or more fields in a record. An answer to a query consists of a listing of all records in the file satisfying the values specified.The main contribution is a general method whereby certain primary key hasing schemes can be extended to partial-match retrieval schemes. These partial-match retrieval designs can handle arbitrarily dynamic files and can be optimized with respect to the number of page faults required to answer a query.We illustrate the method by considering in detail the extension of two recent dynamic primary key hashing schemes.