Application of Finite Geometry in File Organization for Records with Multiple-Valued Attributes

The schemes for organizing binary-valued records using finite geometries have been extended to the situation in which the attributes of the records can take multiple values. Some new schemes for organizing records have been proposed which are based on deleted finite geometries. These new schemes permit the organization of records into buckets in such a manner that, by solving certain algebraic linear equations over a finite field, it is possible to determine the bucket in which records, pertaining to two given values of two different attributes, are stored. Since the bucket identification required for the storage of record accession numbers is based on the combination of attribute values, the file does not require any reorganization as new records are added. This is a definite advantage of the proposed schemes over many key-address transformation procedures wherein the addition of new records may lead to either a drastic revision of the file organization or significant reduction of retrieval effectiveness. The search time for the new schemes are very small in comparison to other existing methods.