Re: access path

[Vern Hamberg <vhamberg@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Again, the term is not exclusive to iSeries or AS/400. It might be an IBM 
thing, however - it is used in other flavors of DB2. I seem to recall 
seeing it in Date's book on database theory - of course, he was with IBM.

On iSeries, at least, it comprises more than an index - it includes arrival 
sequence, so is a more general term than 'index', IMV. It also probably 
comes into play with ODPs (open data paths - which are, I assume, some 
kinds of structures that hold information for getting at records in a file 
that is in use - again, something, conceptually, that all data systems have 
to have in some fomr, right?)

But IBM does have a way of complicating things - those whirling metal 
thingies in your AS/400 are known as an 'air moving devices' - for real!

Vern

At 08:18 PM 4/24/2003 -0500, you wrote:
> From: Tom Liotta <qsrvbas@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
> > >   4. access path (Leif Svalgaard)
> > >Somebody enlighten me...
> > "...enlighten..."? Well, we'll see.
> >
> > >From the venerable _IBM System/38 Technical Developments_ chapter
> 'System/38 data base concepts':
>
> > More detail is in the book, but none seems clear enough to help.
> >
>
> That is the point. An index (or an alternate index) is a simple, clear-cut
> concept. IBM made it mysterious by hidden it behind the label
> "access path". Well, thanks everybody for the clarification.