Maintaining a Sequence Set: The Use of Blocks I
A sequence set is a set of records in physical key order which is such that it stays ordered as records are added and deleted.
Since sorting and resorting the entire sequence set as records are added and deleted is expensive, we look at other strategies. In particular, we look at a way to localize the changes.
The idea is to use blocks that can be read into memory and rearranged there quickly. Like in B-Trees, blocks can be split, merged or their records re-distributed as necessary.