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Noel McKinney

Posted Tuesday, September 29, 2009 10:43 PM

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Comments posted to this topic are about the item B-tree

Post #795530

David in .AU

Posted Tuesday, September 29, 2009 10:51 PM

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Although I got it correct, from the research I have done, no-one really knows what the B stands for.

It is never clearly defined by anyone.
One article I found has some some interesting tid bits of info about it :)

Quote:
"But in the paper that Mr. Bayer et al wrote introducing this structure, they never defined for us what the ‘B' stood for, so nobody knows for certain if it has a meaning."

Bayer being one of the team who developed the B-tree.

Of course, if anyone has later info from the team where they did indeed qualify what it means, please share :)

-d

Post #795532

Kelsey Thornton

Posted Wednesday, September 30, 2009 1:30 AM

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Maybe that B *really* stands for "Bayer" Wink

Kelsey Thornton
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Post #795574

Warren Gilbert

Posted Wednesday, September 30, 2009 5:38 AM

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There are several references to the fact that the meaning of the 'B' in B-Tree is undefined, but since this site is 'Microsoft' SQL Server related, the following page makes it quite clear -

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa964133(SQL.90).aspx

... B-Trees, where B stands for "balanced" (not "binary," as is sometimes thought)...

Post #795649

PostXript

Posted Wednesday, September 30, 2009 5:54 AM

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Even Wikipedia doesn't know:

"Rudolf Bayer and Ed McCreight invented the B-tree while working at Boeing in 1971, but did not explain what, if anything, the B stands for. Douglas Comer suggests a number of possibilities:
"Balanced," "Broad," or "Bushy" might apply [since all leaves are at the same level]. Others suggest that the "B" stands for Boeing [since the authors worked at Boeing Scientific Research Labs in 1972]. Because of his contributions, however, it seems appropriate to think of B-trees as "Bayer"-trees."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B-tree

Post #795654

Rob Goddard

Posted Wednesday, September 30, 2009 6:56 AM

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PostXript (9/30/2009)

Even Wikipedia doesn't know

Good job I was sitting down, or I might have fallen down! Tongue

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Post #795688

David Harder

Posted Wednesday, September 30, 2009 7:01 AM

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Interesting that this somewhat obscure article states a "fact" that is different than the "facts" in dozens of other articles on the subject which state that it is unknown.

Post #795692

Manie Verster

Posted Wednesday, September 30, 2009 7:10 AM

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I just said to myself that I don't think a B-Tree is a Binary tree rather a Balanced tree but then I searched it on Google and saw in big bold letters B-Tree,Binary Tree and without further a-do I answered Binary Tree. When I got the You're wrong! message I thought bugger I want to check that website. It said in bold letters as I said above and if I would have read further I would have seen B-Tree is not a Binary Tree! I could kick myself. So, L's and G's, READ! is the lesson to learn hear! w00t

Manie Verster
Developer
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South Africa

Life is about choices.... I choose to be happy today

Post #795700

Fatal Exception Error

Posted Wednesday, September 30, 2009 7:12 AM

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When I see B-tree I think binary search tree unless its an MS thing. In this case I know its not what I think cause MS always has to be different.

Someone correct me if I am wrong but I thought binary search trees were self balancing to some extent.

Post #795701

sjimmo

Posted Wednesday, September 30, 2009 7:29 AM

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My problem with the answer is that everywhere you read about B-tree, that I have found, does not use the term balanced. There are many articles/diagrams explaining B-Tree indexes, and numerous ones infer Binary but do not specifically say this.

The next issue I have is that if you were to google Binary Index Tree, the explanations/Diagrams are identical.

I believe that this is a great question for conversations, debates and many articles about. But based upon the chosen answer as being the correct one leads me to believe that there was interpretation on the writer's part which in this case goes against the interpretation of many others.

Steve Jimmo
Sr DBA
“If we ever forget that we are One Nation Under God, then we will be a Nation gone under." - Ronald Reagan

Post #795713

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