System and method for adaptively loading input data into a multi-dimensional clustering table

Abstract

A system and associated method load an input data stream into a multi-dimensional clustering (MDC) table or other structure containing data clustered along one or more dimensions, by assembling blocks of data in a partial block cache in which each partial block is associated with a distinct logical cell. A minimum threshold number of partial blocks may be maintained. Partial blocks may be spilled from the partial block cache to make room for new logical cells. Last partial pages of spilled partial blocks may be stored in a partial page cache to limit I/O if the cell associated with a spilled block is encountered later in the input data stream. Buffers may be reassigned from the partial block cache to the partial page cache if the latter is filled. Parallelism may be employed for efficiency during sorting of input data subsets and during storage of blocks to secondary storage.