A mechanism of structural join index hierarchy for efficient complex object retrieval

In this chapter, a novel indexing method — structural join index hierarchy is proposed to handle the complex object retrieval without using a sequence of expensive pointer chasing operations. The structural join index hierarchy mimics the class composition hierarchy of the complex objects and provides direct access to them and their component objects. Structural join index hierarchy extends the work on join index hierarchies by providing efficient and flexible access to complex objects. Moreover, this method unifies various previous indexing methods proposed for OODBs. We present performance evaluation to illustrate the utility of structural join index hierarchy over other indexing methods for complex object retrieval