Hash-Based Indexes

Chapter 10

Database Management Systems 3ed, R. Ramakrishnan and J. Gehrke

Introduction

As for any index, 3 alternatives for data entries k*:

Data record with key value k <k, rid of data record with search key value k> <k, list of rids of data records with search key k> Choice orthogonal to the indexing technique

Hash-based indexes are best for equality selections. Cannot support range searches. Static and dynamic hashing techniques exist; trade-offs similar to ISAM vs. B+ trees.
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Database Management Systems 3ed, R. Ramakrishnan and J. Gehrke

Static Hashing

# primary pages fixed, allocated sequentially, never de-allocated; overflow pages if needed. h(k) mod M = bucket to which data entry with key k belongs. (M = # of buckets)
h(key) mod N key h 0 2

N-1
Primary bucket pages Overflow pages
3 Database Management Systems 3ed, R. Ramakrishnan and J. Gehrke

Static Hashing (Contd.)

Buckets contain data entries. Hash fn works on search key field of record r. Must distribute values over range 0 ... M-1.

h(key) = (a * key + b) usually works well. a and b are constants; lots known about how to tune h.

Long overflow chains can develop and degrade performance.

Extendible and Linear Hashing: Dynamic techniques to fix this problem.

Database Management Systems 3ed, R. Ramakrishnan and J. Gehrke

Extendible Hashing

Situation: Bucket (primary page) becomes full. Why not re-organize file by doubling # of buckets?

Reading and writing all pages is expensive! Idea: Use directory of pointers to buckets, double # of buckets by doubling the directory, splitting just the bucket that overflowed! Directory much smaller than file, so doubling it is much cheaper. Only one page of data entries is split. No overflow page! Trick lies in how hash function is adjusted!
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Database Management Systems 3ed, R. Ramakrishnan and J. Gehrke

LOCAL DEPTH

Example

GLOBAL DEPTH

4* 12* 32* 16*

Bucket A

Directory is array of size 4. To find bucket for r, take last `global depth # bits of h(r); we denote r by h(r). If h(r) = 5 = binary 101, it is in bucket pointed to by 01.

00

1*

5* 21* 13*

Bucket B

01 10

11

10*

Bucket C

DIRECTORY

15* 7* 19* DATA PAGES

Bucket D

Insert: If bucket is full, split it (allocate new page, re-distribute).

If necessary, double the directory. (As we will see, splitting a bucket does not always require doubling; we can tell by comparing global depth with local depth for the split bucket.)
Database Management Systems 3ed, R. Ramakrishnan and J. Gehrke 6

Insert h(r)=20 (Causes Doubling)

   

LOCAL DEPTH GLOBAL DEPTH

2 32*16*

Bucket A

LOCAL DEPTH


3
  

GLOBAL DEPTH

32* 16* Bucket A 2 1* 5* 21*13* Bucket B

2 00

2 1* 5* 21*13* Bucket B

3 000 001 Bucket C 010 011

01

10 11

2 10*

2 10*

Bucket C

100 Bucket D 101 110

 

DIRECTORY

2
 

15* 7* 19*

15* 7* 19*

Bucket D

111
 

4* 12* 20*

Bucket A2 (`split image' of Bucket A)

3
 

DIRECTORY

4* 12* 20*

Bucket A2 (`split image' of Bucket A) 7

Database Management Systems 3ed, R. Ramakrishnan and J. Gehrke

Points to Note

20 = binary 10100. Last 2 bits (00) tell us r belongs in A or A2. Last 3 bits needed to tell which.

Global depth of directory: Max # of bits needed to tell which bucket an entry belongs to. Local depth of a bucket: # of bits used to determine if an entry belongs to this bucket.

When does bucket split cause directory doubling?

Before insert, local depth of bucket = global depth. Insert causes local depth to become > global depth; directory is doubled by copying it over and `fixing pointer to split image page. (Use of least significant bits enables efficient doubling via copying of directory!)
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Database Management Systems 3ed, R. Ramakrishnan and J. Gehrke

Directory Doubling
Why use least significant bits in directory? Allows for doubling via copying!
         

6 = 110
          

3
   

6 = 110
     

3
       

000 001 2
    

000 100 2
    

010 011 1 0 1 00 10

010 110 001

1 0 1

00 01 10 11

6*

6*

100 101 110 111

6*

01 11

6*

6*

101 011 111

6*

Least Significant

vs.

Most Significant
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Database Management Systems 3ed, R. Ramakrishnan and J. Gehrke

Comments on Extendible Hashing

If directory fits in memory, equality search answered with one disk access; else two.

100MB file, 100 bytes/rec, 4K pages contains 1,000,000 records (as data entries) and 25,000 directory elements; chances are high that directory will fit in memory. Directory grows in spurts, and, if the distribution of hash values is skewed, directory can grow large. Multiple entries with same hash value cause problems!

Delete: If removal of data entry makes bucket empty, can be merged with `split image. If each directory element points to same bucket as its split image, can halve directory.
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Database Management Systems 3ed, R. Ramakrishnan and J. Gehrke

Linear Hashing

This is another dynamic hashing scheme, an alternative to Extendible Hashing. LH handles the problem of long overflow chains without using a directory, and handles duplicates. Idea: Use a family of hash functions h0, h1, h2, ...

hi(key) = h(key) mod(2iN); N = initial # buckets h is some hash function (range is not 0 to N-1) If N = 2d0, for some d0, hi consists of applying h and looking at the last di bits, where di = d0 + i. hi+1 doubles the range of hi (similar to directory doubling)
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Database Management Systems 3ed, R. Ramakrishnan and J. Gehrke

Linear Hashing (Contd.)

Directory avoided in LH by using overflow pages, and choosing bucket to split round-robin.

Splitting proceeds in `rounds. Round ends when all NR initial (for round R) buckets are split. Buckets 0 to Next-1 have been split; Next to NR yet to be split. Current round number is Level. Search: To find bucket for data entry r, find hLevel(r): If hLevel(r) in range `Next to NR , r belongs here. Else, r could belong to bucket hLevel(r) or bucket hLevel(r) + NR; must apply hLevel+1(r) to find out.
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Database Management Systems 3ed, R. Ramakrishnan and J. Gehrke

Overview of LH File

In the middle of a round.

Bucket to be split Next Buckets split in this round: If h Level ( search key value ) is in this range, must use h Level+1 ( search key value ) to decide if entry is in `split image' bucket.

Buckets that existed at the beginning of this round: this is the range of

hLevel
`split image' buckets: created (through splitting of other buckets) in this round

Database Management Systems 3ed, R. Ramakrishnan and J. Gehrke

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Linear Hashing (Contd.)

Insert: Find bucket by applying hLevel / hLevel+1:

If bucket to insert into is full: Add overflow page and insert data entry. (Maybe) Split Next bucket and increment Next.

Can choose any criterion to `trigger split.

Since buckets are split round-robin, long overflow chains dont develop! Doubling of directory in Extendible Hashing is similar; switching of hash functions is implicit in how the # of bits examined is increased.
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Database Management Systems 3ed, R. Ramakrishnan and J. Gehrke

Example of Linear Hashing

On split, hLevel+1 is used to re-distribute entries.

Level=0, N=4 h 1 000 001 h 0 00 01 PRIMARY Next=0 PAGES 32*44* 36* 9* 25* 5* 14* 18*10*30* 31*35* 7* 11* Data entry r with h(r)=5 h 1 000 001 h 0 00 01 Level=0 PRIMARY PAGES 32* Next=1 9* 25* 5* 14* 18*10*30* 31*35* 7* 11* 44* 36* 15 43* OVERFLOW PAGES

010 011

10 11

Primary bucket page

010 011

10 11

(This info (The actual contents 100 00 is for illustration of the linear hashed only!) file) Database Management Systems 3ed, R. Ramakrishnan and J. Gehrke

Example: End of a Round

Level=1 h1 Level=0 h1 000 001 010 011 100 101 110 h0 00 01 10 11 00 01 10 PRIMARY PAGES 32* 010 9* 25* 011 66*18*10* 34* Next=3 31* 35* 7* 11* 44* 36* 5* 37*29* 22* 14*30* 100 43* 101 110 111 11 00 11 10 11 43* 35* 11* 44* 36* 5* 37* 29* 14* 30* 22* 31*7* 16 10 66* 18* 10* 34* 50* OVERFLOW PAGES 000 001 h0 Next=0 00 01 32* 9* 25* PRIMARY PAGES OVERFLOW PAGES

Database Management Systems 3ed, R. Ramakrishnan and J. Gehrke

LH Described as a Variant of EH

The two schemes are actually quite similar:

Begin with an EH index where directory has N elements. Use overflow pages, split buckets round-robin. First split is at bucket 0. (Imagine directory being doubled at this point.) But elements <1,N+1>, <2,N+2>, ... are the same. So, need only create directory element N, which differs from 0, now.
When bucket 1 splits, create directory element N+1, etc.

So, directory can double gradually. Also, primary bucket pages are created in order. If they are allocated in sequence too (so that finding ith is easy), we actually dont need a directory! Voila, LH.
Database Management Systems 3ed, R. Ramakrishnan and J. Gehrke 17

Summary

Hash-based indexes: best for equality searches, cannot support range searches. Static Hashing can lead to long overflow chains. Extendible Hashing avoids overflow pages by splitting a full bucket when a new data entry is to be added to it. (Duplicates may require overflow pages.)

Directory to keep track of buckets, doubles periodically. Can get large with skewed data; additional I/O if this does not fit in main memory.

Database Management Systems 3ed, R. Ramakrishnan and J. Gehrke

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Summary (Contd.)

Linear Hashing avoids directory by splitting buckets round-robin, and using overflow pages.

Overflow pages not likely to be long. Duplicates handled easily. Space utilization could be lower than Extendible Hashing, since splits not concentrated on `dense data areas. Can tune criterion for triggering splits to trade-off slightly longer chains for better space utilization.

For hash-based indexes, a skewed data distribution is one in which the hash values of data entries are not uniformly distributed!
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Database Management Systems 3ed, R. Ramakrishnan and J. Gehrke