I would suggest you to get the Firebird Book II, from Helen Borrie, so
far the most complete "doc" about Firebird in English. You can buy it
at ibphoenix.com, Amazon, etc.

Carlos
Firebird Performance in Detail - http://videos.firebirddevelopersday.com
www.firebirdnews.org - www.FireBase.com.br

bbmpcfs> On Fri, 06 Mar 2015 08:58:36 -0500, you wrote:

bbmpcfs> Thanks folks, particularly to Ann - that bit about the way Firebird
bbmpcfs> arranges the indexes itself was the clincher. It seems difficult to
bbmpcfs> find a full manual for Firebird unless I speak Russian (I don't!), all
bbmpcfs> there seems to be on the main site are updates - unless this is meant
bbmpcfs> to mean the full manual updated to version 2.5, in which case it's a
bbmpcfs> strange (and misleading) way to put it.

bbmpcfs> Brian.

>>Hi all,
>>
>>
>>I have volunteered to write a statistics-type program in
>>Lazarus/FreePascal under Linux and I need an embedded database, that
>>means it has to be Firebird. I've used a lot of database software
>>before, but never Firebird (nor Interbase, for that matter). I do NOT
>>want to force users to install a full-blown database server in order
>>to use the software.
>>
>>
>>My problem is that I must avoid duplicated records in the database,
>>the unique key is a complicated structure containing four 16-bit words
>>plus a 108-bit set of flags. The combination of the whole lot must be
>>unique. I don't need to retrieve this data other than to check for
>>duplicate records, so I can massage it in FreePascal so that it can go
>>into the database in any form that's desirable.
>>
>>
>>If I were using PostgreSQL, I'd store the whole lot as a single
>>172-bit bitstring, but I can't find any mention of an equivalent data
>>type in the Firebird documentation that I've been able to find.
>>
>>
>>So, how would you store this data for greatest speed/efficiency in
>>checking for duplicates, please? I'm looking at a few million records
>>in the database, and there's a record size of around 350-400 bytes.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>Thanks,
>>
>>
>>Brian.
>>
>>
>>------------------------------------
>>Posted by: brian <brian@...>
>>------------------------------------
>>
>>++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
>>
>>Visit http://www.firebirdsql.org and click the Documentation item
>>on the main (top) menu. Try FAQ and other links from the left-side menu there.
>>
>>Also search the knowledgebases at http://www.ibphoenix.com/resources/documents/
>>
>>++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
>>------------------------------------
>>
>>Yahoo Groups Links
>>
>>
>>

bbmpcfs> ------------------------------------
bbmpcfs> Posted by: brian <brian@...>
bbmpcfs> ------------------------------------

bbmpcfs> ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

bbmpcfs> Visit http://www.firebirdsql.org and click the Documentation item
bbmpcfs> on the main (top) menu. Try FAQ and other links from the left-side menu there.

bbmpcfs> Also search the knowledgebases at
bbmpcfs> http://www.ibphoenix.com/resources/documents/

bbmpcfs> ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
bbmpcfs> ------------------------------------

bbmpcfs> Yahoo Groups Links