Table Buffering Summary

Table Buffering – Types of Buffering When picking a buffering type, consider how the table will be accessed and its size CHARACTERISTICS FULL All records of table loaded into BUFFERING buffer, even when just access one record GENERIC All records with matching BUFFERING generic key are copied to the buffer. Generic key is a leftjustified part of the primary key – but not a full key (this is SINGLE-RECORD BUFFERING) SINGLEOnly those records RECORD ACTUALLY accessed from BUFFERING the database are loaded into the buffer

USES: Table is small (because it is read often and written to infrequently) Use when certain generic areas of the table are needed for processing, e.g. language-dependent tables

Use when large table where only a few records are accessed repeatedly

When not to use buffering:  If you ALWAYS need the current data for a table  If the contents are modified frequently