On Wed, Dec 19, 2018 at 7:44 PM Arkhena <arkh...@gmail.com> wrote: >> I'm wondering where the choice of the name "heap" originally came from >> and what it refers to. > > It seems to me that "heap" is an Oracle word (as explained here[1]). > > > By default, a table is organized as a heap, which means that the database > > places rows where they fit best rather than in a user-specified order.
No, it's more widely used than that, and we're using it with the standard meaning AFAIK: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/relational-databases/indexes/heaps-tables-without-clustered-indexes?view=sql-server-2017 http://docs.actian.com/ingres/10.2/index.html#page/DatabaseAdmin/Heap_Storage_Structure.htm It just means tuples stored in no particular order (as opposed to eg btree tables, in systems that support those). -- Thomas Munro http://www.enterprisedb.com
