Patent ID: 6697817
Filing Date: 2004-02-24
Classification: G06F,Y10S

Abstract:
A variable-length database apparatus provided with an inputting portion for inputting stored data and a retrieval condition, a database for storing data inputted by said inputting portion, a database management system for reading and writing data from and to said database, and an outputting portion for outputting the result of retrieving data stored in said database, comprising:means for generating an item definition area for storing, and for relating to each other, an item name, a data type, and an item length of each item of data defined in the database, and a packet number given to the item; means for generating a record management area for giving the packet number to a record comprising items defined by the item definition area, and for storing, and relating to each other, the packet number for each of such items in the record; means for generating a data area by referring to other data inputted by the inputting portion and the record management area; extracting means for extracting, when data inputted by the inputting portion and data in the record management area are matched with a retrieval condition in retrieval of data, the matched data from the data area; an outputting means for outputting the data extracted by the extracting means; means for forming each of the item definition area, the record management area and the data area out of independent packets managed by a node descriptor and a node allocation table; means for indirectly addressing the packets by means of packet addresses managed by the node allocation table indicated by the node descriptor; and means for managing a process of indirectly addressing each record of up to n2/8 bytes when one packet is of n bytes; wherein the item definition area, the record management area, and the data area are formed out of variable-length data; wherein the item definition area, the record management area and the data area are each a data table having a plurality of packets and clusters; wherein the size of each packet may be optionally set; and wherein each record is divided and stored into plural packets when the data size of a record is larger than the size of said packet, the variable-length database apparatus further comprising means for indirectly referring to the packets in addressing the divided and stored data.