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Secondary Index

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Encyclopedia of Database Systems

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Synonyms

Non-clustering index

Definition

A tree-based index is called a secondary index if the order which it maintains on the search-key values is not the same as the order of the file which it indexes. For example, consider a relation R with some numeric attribute A taking values over an (ordered) domain D. Assume that relation R is not physically stored on the values of attribute A (i.e., relation R is either stored as a heap – an unordered file, or is ordered on another attribute). Furthermore, assume that a tree-based index (e.g., B + -tree) has been created on attribute A. Then this index is secondary.

Key Points

Tree-based indices are built on numeric attributes and maintain an order among the indexed search-key values. They are further categorized by whether their search-key ordering is the same with the file’s physical order (if any). Note that a file may or may not be ordered. Ordered is a file whose records are stored in pages according to the order of the values of an...

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Recommended Reading

  1. Elmasri R.A., and Shamkant N.B. Fundamentals of Database Systems (5th edn.). Addisson-Wesley, Reading, MA, 2007.

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  2. Manolopoulos, Theodoridis Y. and Tsotras Y. Vassilis J. Advanced Database Indexing. Kluwer, Dordecht, 1999.

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  3. Ramakrishnan and Raghu Gehrke. Johannes Database Management Systems (3rd edn.). McGraw-Hill, NY, 2003.

    MATH  Google Scholar 

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece

    Yannis Manolopoulos

  2. University of Piraeus, Piraeus, Greece

    Yannis Theodoridis

  3. University of California-Reverside, Riverside, CA, USA

    Vassilis J. Tsotras

Authors
  1. Yannis Manolopoulos
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  2. Yannis Theodoridis
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  3. Vassilis J. Tsotras
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. College of Computing, Georgia Institute of Technology, 266 Ferst Drive, 30332-0765, Atlanta, GA, USA

    LING LIU (Professor) (Professor)

  2. Database Research Group David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science, University of Waterloo, 200 University Avenue West, N2L 3G1, Waterloo, ON, Canada

    M. TAMER ÖZSU (Professor and Director, University Research Chair) (Professor and Director, University Research Chair)

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© 2009 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC

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Manolopoulos, Y., Theodoridis, Y., Tsotras, V.J. (2009). Secondary Index. In: LIU, L., ÖZSU, M.T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Database Systems. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-39940-9_758

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