david_schnepper wrote:

> --- In Firebird-Architect@yahoogroups.com, Jim Starkey <jstarkey@...>
> wrote:
>
>
>> Character strings never contain 0x00, so this scheme always as short or
>> shorter than the grouping scheme currently in use.
>>
>
> My memory, I think you are able to put a 0x00 byte into a fixed-width
> character string.
>

You can, and it does work. It just costs an extra byte in compound
indexes, but still less than the padding and interspersed index numbers
in the current scheme.

> Also, for international COLLATE keys, I believe a 0x00 byte can be
> placed into the collation key for a piece of text - between the tuple
> members of (primary,secondary,tertiary,4th_level) key generated for a
> piece of text. This is for the same reasons as this proposal - it
> ensures the comparison is resolved when two primary/secondary/etc
> components of different length are compared.
>

Again, that's ok, it's handled.

> Regardless of the nits above - I think the proposal is good.
>
>

--
Jim Starkey
President, NimbusDB, Inc.
978 526-1376