The Multilevel Grid File - A Dynamic Hierarchical Multidimensional File Structure

We present a new dynamic hashed file organization that solves most problems associated with the directory of the grid file proposed by Nievergelt et al. Our scheme is a multilevel extension of the grid file that supports multiattribute accesses to the file for exact-match, partialmatch, and range queries as well as graceful expansion and shrinkage of the file in a dynamic environment. This new file organization offers a number of advantages over the grid file such as compact representation of the directory, linear growth of the directory in the number of records, easy splitting and merging of the directory, efficient processing of partial-match queries, and finer granularity of the directory. Moreover, it provides a new concept, calledabshuct d , that can be employed in practical database applications.